Meet Mark

Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I’m 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we’ve assumed to be true about health and wellness...

The Truth on Truvia

For better or for worse, we’re hell bent on finding or concocting the “perfect” non-caloric sweetener in this country. Call it the spirit of creative innovation – or capitalist enterprise. Call it incessant perpetuation of Americans’ bad eating habits. Call it a pragmatic step toward at least a more healthful alternative for what people will eat regardless.

First it was the pink packets, then the blue, then the yellow, and now the pleasantly, nature-inspired white and green foliage-designed envelopes. Truvia is a lucrative marketing merger of the “true,” (the essence?, the genuine?, the handy emotional affirmation?) with the herb stevia and all its natural (or novel) associations, depending on your familiarity with the natural foods (er, dietary supplement) arena.

Truvia is a creation of the Cargill Corporation, Big Agra giant. (We’re not sayin’, we’re just sayin’.) According to the company, it’s a non-caloric sweetener made from rebiana, an isolated and purified extract of the stevia leaf, a natural sweetener source originally from South America and now used in many corners of the world. Stevia, as we’ve reported on before, is considered safe by most experts, but it has not been approved by the FDA as a food ingredient in this and a number of European countries. (A small number of older and controversial rat studies found some association between high consumption and decreased fertility, lower birth weight and cancer. However, more recent research including a 2006 World Health Organization analysis found no evidence of negative health impact. Additionally, no health issues have been noted in the indigenous populations that have used stevia for generations or in Japan, where it is a very common and legally accepted sweetener used for decades.) In the U.S., stevia has been available but marketed instead as a dietary supplement. The biggest drawback for the sweetener in the minds of many consumers has been the slight (but distinct) aftertaste.

According to Cargill (and a number of tasters who either sampled the product at the company’s official rolling out event or who have purchased the product online), the plant selection and purification processes have done away with the offending aftertaste, leaving nothing but “clean, pure” sweetness. And taste testers seem to be responding positively as well, even preferring the sweetener to real sugar in many cases.

But what about the safety of the product and the whole “natural” claim? Is it really, as Cargill contends, a sweetener we can “feel good about”? We, of course, had to do some digging. Research has thus far been limited to several studies sponsored by Cargill itself. They were published together in a special supplement addition of the Food and Chemical Toxicology Journal this past July. The studies used both rats and humans as test subjects. Other than one study focused on reproductive impact, durations ranged from 4-16 weeks and used high doses of rebiana. According to the assembled research, there currently isn’t any indication that rebiana negatively impacts health. In healthy people, it didn’t raise blood pressure. It didn’t raise blood sugar in those with type 2 diabetes. Animal studies showed no signs of reproductive impact or harm to offspring. The rebiana substance was shown to be safely metabolized and secreted. The company adds that this research is meant to be examined in tandem with the plethora of existed studies on stevia – mainly steviol glycosides, which includes rebaudioside A, the primary element of Cargill’s rebiana.

As we speak, Truvia is in the midst of a nation-wide rollout. Having been first sold by select New York vendors and online, the product is making its way to more main street grocers. Additionally, consumers will increasingly find common food products made with Truvia in their supermarket aisles (including Coca-Cola-yeah!) as additional food and beverage applications are announced. We’ll see which ones are worth their salt – or their sweetener, we should say.

So, what’s our take on Truvia? In our minds the jury is still out. While the initial studies offer some degree of assurance, they’re extremely limited in terms of populations tested, biomarkers analyzed, and durations used. First off, it isn’t 100% clear that rebiana is entirely the physiologically-acting equal of other forms of stevia used throughout the world. Studies that last a mere 4-16 weeks don’t tell us much about the long-term effects of a substance. And though one study observed no impact on fertility or offspring in rats over two generations, somehow that still isn’t enough for us to recommend Truvia to our pregnant sister-in-law. Also, we wonder how well the substance will be tolerated in people with autoimmune disorders, certain food allergies, high blood pressure or other medical conditions. On a related note, we wish we knew more about potential substance interactions – how prescription drugs, hormonal therapies, or other medicinal treatments might alter the body’s processing and secretion of the substance over time. Finally, some critics also add that most of their stevia crops are generally grown in China under non-organic conditions. Given the recent problems with Chinese produced crops and medicinal substances (e.g. infant formula, pet food, heparin components), this fact doesn’t exactly inspire the deepest confidence.

Ultimately, our perspective on Truvia is the same as it is with any artificial/altered sweetener: ask yourself if the sweetened food/drink offers any real benefit (physical or otherwise) that you couldn’t get from the same or similar food/drink that’s unsweetened. If using an artificial/altered sweetener gives you an excuse to eat or drink things that probably aren’t good for you anyway (like Coca-Cola), we definitely say skip it. In this case, it’s just a crutch that perpetuates sweet cravings. If it allows you to have a sensible alternative for foods and drinks that offer you some kind of nutritional or personal benefit, then it might be a reasonable addition to your diet on occasion.

We’ll be watching as the news about Truvia unfolds and promise to bring you updates as they come along. In the meantime, we want to hear what you think of the latest sweetener to hit the shelves. Have you tried it? Do you intend to? Tell us your thoughts.

315 thoughts on “The Truth on Truvia”

I haven’t tried it and don’t intend to. I still take in more sugar than I’d like (mostly in coffee), but as I focus on changing my eating habits, I find things I used to enjoy now taste overpowering to the point where I don’t enjoy them. Give me a 90% dark chocolate bar and a spoonful of coconut oil, and I’ll be happy to call that dessert.

I’d still like to try miracle fruit, both for curiosity’s sake and because it might help me drink coffee without sugar.

If you are ever interested in a really natural grow it yourself sweetener, try sweet cicely. It is an herb which is pretty easy to grow and has very sweet leaves that you can use fresh or dried. I have just began to use it but it seems like just a few leaves can really add all the sweetest you need. And I am a recovering sugar addict.

I’m with you on the 90% cocoa and coconut oil – I was a coffee drinker, especially in winter in NY. As of last fall I went low carb and decided to try Stevia with cocoa powder and water instead. I’ve grown to love it both hot and cold. It does require repeated stirring or a good swish toward the bottom of the cup. Sometimes I do add in a bit of hazelnut flavoring too – mmmmmmm give these a try and you may be able to replace your coffee w/ sugar habit with still plenty of antioxidants. Also – we dark chocolate lovers can easily adjust to the bitterness of stevia. I haven’t tried Truvia but will – but generally prefer things as the most natural the better….

YES! my mother grows miracle fruit in Florida. hat it does is makes juicy…citrus type fruits SWEET. I recall this smallish 3/4 inch berry.. A bit sweet itself. chew it and getting around your mouth. THEN eat lemon or lime … It will be the sweetest lemon or lime!

stevia is safe healthwise and in fact, good for your health, in that it is good for your teeth and gums, normalizes blood pressure, normalizes blood-sugar levels, aids in digestion and secretion, improves kidney health, and other health benefits. It is truly like a miracle food, being sweet and doing the healthful opposite to your body then the halth detriments of sugar. You can find all of the substantiated and extremely credible medical literature to confirm what I said! Truvia is not pure stevia and is made up of erythritol, as the first ingredient and rebiana, which is a form of stevia , as the second ingredient ; and erythritol unfortunately has a slight glycemic index and causes other health problems, as it is a sugar alcohol,and sugar alcohols cause various bad health problems! I only know about 2 brands of stevia products on the market, that are not mixed with sugar or sugar alcohols or maltodextrin, and they are Trader Joes brand of pure stevia which comes in a canister and not the packets, and Wisdom of the Ancients brand stevia product which comes in packets and the second ingredient is inositol, which is fiber from chicory root, and inositol is safe and is not associated with detrimental health problems.

you say stevia is much safer then truvia? ive been researching the sweeteners and although i havent found any information saying it was directly harmful to your health, i never found anything saying stevia could be good for you. where did you find this information?

Is it really the USE of Stevia that’s good for you; or the benifits of weaning yourself off of sugar? I do like how you touched on the other ingredient in Truvia,erythritol, which noone else seems to note.

Truvia has a definite aftertaste, and, quite remarkably, 3 carbs per packet! I’ll take my Splenda, and feel okay about it because it makes my primal lifestyle a little easier to swallow (pun intended).

The aftertaste come from the stevia. Stevia is a natural herb that has a bitter/sweet/bitter cycle, the problem is the bitter is always present. The erythritol that Coke is using is only about 60% as sweet as sugar, so they have to boost the sweetness somehow – they chose stevia – which is 300% as sweet as sugar. There is no way to extract and crystallize stevia without chemicals.

We have been working on out erythritol formulation for 9 years and have came up with a 0carb/0cal form of erythritol that is made completely naturally with no chemicals involved in the entire process.

“Erythritol is made by enzymatic processes where enzymes break-down natural foods that are a part of your everyday diet (fruits and vegetables). The process that we use to yield the white crystals is the introduction of microorganisms classified as “osmotolerant”. The non-GMO microorganisms are introduced, and during that 3 day “fermentation” process a white crystalline powder is formed. Those crystals are then purified with natural activated charcoal and ultrafiltration, no chemicals involved.”

In the Marines there is a term “Overwhelming fire power”. All this truvia is cracka-cola’s effort to get products like sweetleaf which is actually made from stevia leaf extract and others off the market.

According to this “Swerve Sweetener” its impossible for all these other products that contain Stevia extract without having gone through some sort of chemical process being involed.

This character “swerve sweetener” seems to be dumping alot of information to try to reassure people of this truvia product. I sense a cracka-cola propagandist and would suggest people actually looking up all thie information them self.

While this character says its impossible to extract stevia without chemicals it forgets to mention Truvia contains rebiana. Rebiana is a product of the stevia plant which according to person would be done through a chemical process chemical.

The label Natural flavors is a notorious term in ingredients to hide whats inside. I am not saying that Erythritol isn’t what “Swerve Sweetener” says it is. I am saying its a look over hear tactic used to make you feel safe about the product.

I am not a spokesperson for any product or group/company. I just hate when people try to manipulate others.

So, after taking your advice and looking into ‘swerve sweetener’ and their posts I’ve discovered that swerve is actually a truvia competitor. so while they may have been backing up erythritol, a naturally occurring sweetener, they probably weren’t doing it to help truvia. thats all

Don’t be fooled by the “Naturally Made” line. Does anybody remember how Aspartame was originally marketed/made?

Essentially the same way… Toxic substance fed to a micro-organism (aka bacteria) which feeds on it, and then excretes (think waste) a powdery substance, which is then filtered and fed to us, broken back down into good stuff and formaldehyde. The latter not being the good stuff.

So what’s left? What’s natural? Every sugar and sweetener is either chemicals, or chemically processed (removing original enzymes and truely natural characteristics)…

If your like me. Stick with the plant. Eat the berry. Eat the fruit. Enjoy the natural characteristics of tea and coffee. Shave the orange peel, chew the sweet leaf. And do it non-GMO style (organic).

Personally, I stick with pure home- boiled maple syrup. Nothing is added – just sap from the sugar maple tree boiled down to syrup. Lots of work – over 40 gallons of sap boiled down to get ONE gallon of syrup, but WORTH it! I use replace the sugar called for with half the amount in syrup. Lots of comments about how good bakery tastes – great over ice cream and in main dish recipes, too.

I agree. It’s really sad what the corporations are doing to our foods in the name of the almighty dollar, but it is also really sad that we put up with it. It’s really frustrating to find good quality food that you don’t have to make completely from scratch. I wish they would just pull their heads out and stop trying to trick us into thinking that they are actually listening to us as consumers and giving us good food while they are still slipping crap in there that bogs us down and hurts us.

I was using Truvia for about a year.
I though it would help with my blood sugar since I was not using sugar anymore. Especially in my coffee.
But, when I went to get my sugar checked I went from a low six to a high 7 on my fasting blood sugar.
I am on meds, there ws no reason for it to go that high. I did a test just this week. Wake up and check my sugar, then have coffee with the Truvia and then retest.
My blood sugar went from 137 to 166 after having the coffee.
To me the claim that the brand does not raise your blood sugar is innacurate. I tried this two more times and it was the same. Now I know why my fasting blood sugar went so high.

Not a Truvia fan per se (I like the actual leaf), but in your case I could not imagine to begin to explain why your sugar levels rose, But… The reason they make such claims, is because stevia is not sucrose, maltose, lactose, fructose, glucose, dextrose, or any other sugar-ose’s. Simply put, it’s not sugar.

Just curious as to what happens when you test before and after other artificial sweeteners, or just the coffee itself.

I realize I’m late posting a reply. You may wish to consider checking your blood glucose after drinking black coffee as well. Some people have sensitivity and caffeine by itself will actually raise their levels.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Truvia is better than splenda. Splenda has 3 calories (carbs) per packet as well. Since it is under 5 calories it can be labeled as “calorie-free”. Splenda is chlorinated sugar. It breaks down at higher temperatures (over 90 some degrees) and becomes toxic to the body. Most sweetners are already spoiled by the time the hit the grocerery

Also, Splenda® does not interact with other food ingredients or breakdown when exposed to the hot temperatures, acidic conditions, and storage requirements common to many food manufacturing and distribution systems, such as those for carbonated soft drinks, dairy products, hot-filled teas, canned fruits, and baked goods.

I used Truvia for over a year and experienced severe, chronic, diarrhea. I finally figured out it was my “natural” sweetener (Truvia.) I threw it all in the trash. After almost 12 months of diarrhea, it stopped when I quit using Truvia. Now I’m fine.

Stick to your Splenda if you eventually want to become very ill as did my wife. Splenda is made by taking two or three OH molecules off of sugar and adding two or three Chlorine molecules making Splenda a “Chlorinated Hydrocarbon.”

Splenda WILL make you sick especially if you use quite a bit of it as I did several years ago. It is not natural. My daughters and I plus a niece all became very tired and had a hard time just trying to function during a regular work day. My niece actually had changes with her white blood cells. We all quit the stuff. My niece now how cancer of her lymph glands. Maybe the two are not related but who knows? I love Truvia and only hope it is safe. Time will tell.

And table salt is “sodium chloride”…that doesn’t mean that you’re consuming chlorine when you eat salt or splenda as the chlorine is chemically bound, rendering it inert. I think people dramatically underestimate the dangers of refined sugar….personally I subscribe to the “everything in moderation” theory, but I’d rather eat splenda than sugar any day.

FYI: In case you are interested.
My gastro Dr. took me off Splenda because I was having unexplaine digestive attacks. After researching Splenda I found that it causes digestive problems, severe headaches & kills the good bacteria that the body needs to properly digest food, not to mention what is does to the liver. I feel so much better now

I haven’t tried Truvia but I’ve been using Stevia Plus for a few years now as a sweetener in my tea. Even there I only use it from time to time as I’m learning to enjoy the flavor of green tea without sweetener. I don’t drink coffee and I’ve quit drinking any kind of soda over a year ago.

I don’t see any need to try Truvia because the aftertaste of Stevia doesn’t bother me. I’m also dubious of Cargill products.

Geez people…you all are sad. (a coca cola product)…….everyone of you must only eat nuts, fruit, veggies and drink only water. You all are exact height and weight ratios aren’t you??? LIVE PEOPLE LIVE!!!!!!!

You forgot to add bacon to the list. And steak. And coconut everything. And lots and lots of delicious fat.

As for the height-to-weight ratios: most of us have lower body fat percentages and more lean mass than the average bear…er, person, so that’s thrown off a bit. But it makes us sexy, so that’s ok.

Coca-Cola is delicious? Gah. Glass of wine for me, please. You enjoy your wickedly addictive sugar water and the subsequent painful crash whenever you try to go without it. I’ll be outside, without a headache, living.

While exercise is an essential component of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, I wouldn’t call it a “cure-all” for everything. There are many substances that are toxic to the human body, and the effects of these substances can’t be erased simply by exercising. The people you refer to as “you” (me being one of them) can assure you that we are anything but sad. After all, I would be much happier taking a slab of bacon or a giant steak over a coca-cola any day!

Thanks for writing about this new sweetener. As of now, i use a little Stevia in my morning coffee, and yes, as you’ve said, it does have aftertaste, but the taste is O.K. while drinking it. I’ve not yet tried Truvia, but plan on it, i’ve not yet seen it nor had i even heard about it until now here on MDA-THANKS for sharing this!

What gets me is that some people think if they drink a diet cola because it has no calorie sweetener, they think it’s healthy. I’ve tried to tell people you’re not doing yourself a favor. They drink this stuff all day long, and some days no water. And yes, i do have coffee in the morning, but not all day long!

I found Stevia to have a bitter aftertaste. I reluctantly tried Truvia and was pleasantly surprised! It taste just like granulated sugar and no aftertaste. It cost alot more than splenda or other sugar substitutes, However,I am hopeful the price will drop as more people discover the sweet taste of Truvia.

When I first read about truvia, this was my response “So… you take a decent natural sweetner, chemically break it down… then reconstruct it and sell it?”. Carghill processes the heck out of the stevia before it becomes truvia. What a load of caca!

I’ve been using Truvia for a few months. I generally use it to sweeten herbal iced tea that I drink in the mornings. Sometimes I sprinkle some on my berries and unsweetened coconut milk, or on oatmeal (also made with coconut milk). I use maybe 2-3 packets a day, so I’m not a big user. And I don’t drink any diet soda at all.

Taste-wise, it’s better than plain stevia, though my wife finds it still has an aftertaste that she doesn’t like.

I don’t experience any effect on blood sugar that I can discern. I’m on a very low-carb, paleo-type diet, and haven’t seen any weight-issues.

In general, I like it. I replaced the same amount of yellow-packet sweetener, and I figure it’s probably more benign than Splenda was. But there’s probably a trade-off of some kind, as there is with anything other than fresh wildebeest that we’ve run down on the veldt!

So you’re on a strict low-carb natural berries and oatmeal hunter-gatherer diet, yet you purchase a laboratory-made chemical to sweeten your food. I take it you’re moreso “anti-carbohydrate” than pro-natural?

Lee, There is no need to be a mean person. You have your opinion and live your life the way you want. Does that mean that you have to be so judgmental in a non-productive way? Life can be pleasant if you choose to be kind and helpful instead of being high and mighty.

Where is this sold? Only @ health food store? Just this past Friday i was in the health food store getting more cashew and almond butters. I’ve not seen this. But, i do have another h.f.s i could look at. I want to give this a try because Stevia does have “after”taste. I see no reason to not try it if so far so good!

Truvia is also sold at Meijer. Besides adding it to my tea and oatmeal in the morning, I’ve also made an apple pie with it. One packet is equal to two tsps. of sugar. After emptying around 10 packets, I ended up with about a 1/2 cup of sweetner for my pie. The pie was plenty sweet, very good!

I’ve tried it and it’s pretty good. I also have used Stevia for some time, and can’t even detect an aftertaste, although from what I understand some brands have more of an aftertaste than others. Be aware that Truvia also has another ingredient in it, erythriol (hope I spelled that right). It’s an alcohol sugar, I believe. It has a slight cooling effect on the tongue, almost like a mint, just not near as strong.
As for me, as much as I like Truvia’s taste (one packet is = to two teaspoons of sugar) I think I’ll stick with what I know is not as processed, Plain stevia powder, and the liquid kind that is good for mixing with drinks. I do’t use that much of it anyway…
Oh and Truvia was found at our local Krogers. And the shelf was cleaned out, save for the box I got.
I think it’s going to be pretty popular.

It is probably great to sweeten a morning coffee with, eh, Mark? The way I see it, we are better off without sweeteners or artificial sweet things in general. If sugar is addictive, why keep yourself addicted in the first place?

I’ve been using regular stevia for over a year in both liquid and powdered forms. I like it and its unique taste doesn’t bother me. I was very skeptical of Truvia, so thanks so much for this article! I still won’t be choosing it over plain stevia, but it doesn’t seem to carry the same risks as artificial sweeteners or refined sugars (neither of which I go near).

Haven’t tried it and have no interest in doing so. All sweeteners are bad for you, and the non-caloric sweeteners are the absolute worst (Splenda, Aspartame, &c.). And whilst Stevia *may* not be as bad for you as High Fructose Corn Syrup, what is the point of feeding an unnecessary sugar addiction with yet another foodstuff monstrosity? I would rather have an occasional piece of dried fruit as a treat than eat any processed sweetener – I don’t care how “natural” they say it is.

I am on a specific diet for candidas (systemic yeast overgrowth). I must completely avoid all sugars and carbs. Stevia is the only sweetner that doesn’t feed the yeast. I am supposed to eat plain unsweetened organic yogurt. If you have tasted plain yogurt (similar to sour cream) you would see why this using this product is necessary.

i think plain yogurt has a great taste it is not any smilar to sour cream, you need to get the right one. if you can get the greek yogurt you can spred it onto a cracker and eat it like cream cheese and if you want you can put another layer of something sweet or something salty.
grade some cucumbers chop some dill mash a clove of garlik mix it with greek yogurt and use it as a dipping for your veggies. you dont need sugar to eat yogurt. i know it sounds abit strange but it tastes whole alot better than it sounds. it is cooling and freshening. lost of people liked it i hope you like it too.

You can use plain yogurt as you would sour creme in Mexican dishes. I love to put a dollup of plain yogurt on top of my salsa for a dip. Of course the corn chips would be another matter, but it is less fat in the dip than sour creme. I might add it is a special occassion summer thing.

First off, I trust Cargill about as far as Grok could throw them — which is to say, a slightly shorter distance than Grok could throw ADM.

More to the point, what is with this incessant, God-given need we have for sweet things — which weren’t made sweet by nature. Fruit is sweet, I get it. That sweetness comes from naturally occurring sugar, I get that too. Yippee for sweet.

Just needed to clear this up- since this is just sitting here on the internet being wrong, however late I may be. Milk, while having sugars in it, is NOT appropriate for a hypoglycemic crisis. Milk has fat in it, and fat slows the absorption of the sugars, delaying the rise in blood sugar. If you see a diabetic have a a hypoglycemic crisis, give them something like juice, dried fruit, or regular soda.

Some misinformation here. Milk IS very appropriate to treat a hypoglycemic reaction. There are many endocrinologists and internists that prefer their patients be treated with milk as it prevents a blood sugar spike and the protein also tends to stabilize the blood sugar rather than cause a rebound high/low see-saw effect. Also, I need to point out that dried fruit IS NOT an appropriate treatment for a very low blood sugar as many hypoglycemics in crisis do not have the energy/available calories or coordination to be able to chew it.

Mary, Diabetics should never use milk or juice or fruit etc to bring blood sugar back up. It is too imprecise. You wil always overshoot your mark of normalizing blood sugars. Plus, they all must be broken down to get to glucose. Instead take 4 gram glucose tabs. 1 Tab raises my blood sugar 20 points and no more. 1/2 tab, 10 points. PRECISE! Fastest too because the glucose is working in 5 minutes. For even faster results, you can get glucose liquid tubes. This will allow you to keep normal blood sugars without overshooting your mark. Recommended by Dr. Richard K Bernstein..”Diabetes Solution”. The only book you will ever need to normalize blood sugar.

Hi Richard,
Agree with everything you just said apart from that diabetics should ‘never’ use milk or fruit juice for hypos. If it’s the choice between unconciousness/coma or fruit juice/milk i’ll be opting for the juice/milk anyday. Ideally they should have a form of glucose on them so they can deal with it precisely.
Totally agree with you about Bernsteins book. If you are a diabetic you MUST OWN THIS BOOK. It’s that simple. This book told me more in 1 week of reading than 22 years of Doctors, specialists and paying attention to bullshit diabetic organisations ever did.

There are some people for whom sweet (and salty, by the way) are a godsend. I am currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, and the chemo drugs warp your taste buds. My mouth constantly tastes of metal. Not just a little—-A LOT. Sweet kills the metal taste. Foods that used to taste great, don’t anymore. I can’t eat sugar sweetened foods because of the risk of tooth decay. And artificially sweetened gum and candies do take that god-awful taste from my mouth temporarily.

Yeah! I Love your stuff it comment!
You do what you can to get thru Chemo.
My sister was recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, a Non Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer, she may have to undergo Chemo in the future. We need to support each other on this. Best of luck to you.

Realizing it’s been 3 years since either of your posts; I hope both of you and yours’ cancer treatments have been successful. I agree you do what you have to do for a little glimpse of comfort in a struggle.

Living here in Cargill territory (seriously, I’m spitting distance from their headquarters & half our neighborhood works for them in some capacity), I tried out Truvia about a year ago. I’ve been using Stevia for years (not daily, just every now and then) and am well accustomed to the aftertaste but I did think that Truvia was an improvement. That said, I haven’t made any effort to get any more since I first tried it. It’s the whole “processed factor” that Son of Grok brought up. Makes me nervous.

Damaged Justice,
I tried the miracle fruit last weekend and it was indeed miraculous. But, I wouldn’t suggest using it as a sweetener substitute for coffee. The miracle fruit really sends your tongue into weirdsville. Here were some of the wacky taste results:

But nuts still tasted like nuts and coffee still tasted like coffee. Miracle fruit makes for a fun party, but using it to brighten up a diet would be similar to wearing 3-D glasses whenever the sky is cloudy.

As soon as i find it, i will try it and see how i like it. Different people have different tastes, i like Stevia but i dilike the liquid Stevia. I’ll let you know how i like it and MDA will keep us posted on it!

As Dave, RN mentioned, Truvia has Erythritol in it. 3 g. per packet! I am sensitive to sugar alcohols and would never use a sweetener with that much sugar alcohol in it, even though Erythritol usually causes less “upset” than the other sugar alcohols do.

I use both stevia extract and erythritol but I mostly use Sweetzfree. I usually use stevia extract and Sweetzfree together and sometimes erythritol (for texture) because a blend of sweeteners seems to taste better than any one alone. The erythritol I have to powder in my blender because it doesn’t dissolve very well otherwise. I wonder if the erythritol in the Truvia dissolves when you mix it into something?

Try swerve sweetener, it acts just like sugar at all temps, it melts, dissolves, cooks, bakes and freezes just like sugar. The best part is it measures the same as sugar, equal in sweetness 1:1 – makes for easier recipe conversions.

I am concerned with the new Sugar “Swerve” as I am with “Trivia”. . .WHY! because they have listed in there ingredients “NATURAL FLAVORINGS”. . .WHAT IS HIDDEN underneath that heading “NATURAL FLAVORINGS” that they don’t want us to know about?????Could it be MSG which enhances flavor or some other bad Excitotoxin. I wish both these Companies sugars would tell us what the “NATURAL FLAVORINGS” are. So, until either of these companies come forward with all their ingredients I am not buying. For those of you wondering what an Excitotoxin is here is the definition: Excitotoxin are substances, usually amino acids, that react with specialized receptors in the brain in such a way as to lead to destruction of certain types of brain cells. Glutamate is one of the more commonly known excitotoxins. MSG is the sodium salt of glutamate. This amino acid is a normal neurotransmitter in the brain. In fact, it is the most commonly used neurotransmitter by the brain. Defenders of MSG and aspartame use, often say: “How could a substance that is used normally by the brain cause harm?” This is because, glutamate, as a neurotransmitter, is used by the brain only in very, very small concentrations – no more than 8 to 12ug. When the concentration of this transmitter rises above this level the neurons begin to fire abnormally. At higher concentrations, the cells undergo a specialized process of cell death. So, Bottom line is I’m not using any sugar that list ingredients as Natural Flavorings.

ah ha! this is the nugget of info I was looking for. The “natural flavors” – MSG connection. I’m glad you included this in the discussion because it must be examined closely. Any company that does not want to fully disclose the exact nature of their “natural flavors” is a flag to me. What’s to hide? The fact is I can’t touch the stuff till I know.

Amen!! Plain old sugar in moderation just the way God intended it. If it is artificial, processed, or some modified manmade chemical I’m opting out. Water, exercise, and real sugar in moderation is key for me. I often use natural local honey or fruit juice to sweeten coffee, tea, or during baking. You’d been amazed how little of a difference there is.

I too am leary of “natural ingredients”
I’m sensitive to MSG. However, as a Cargill employee, the company kitchen has a stock of Truvia. I’m trying it today as a sugar substitute in my coffee (and I drink a lot of coffee). If by noon today, I get blind sided by an invisible mallet between my eyes, I’ll know it was an MSG reaction….

I bought some not too long ago. I used it once or twice before I decided that I like my coffee black these days. I used it in one or two low carb desserts too, and it helped bulk up the taste of Splenda, but I am still not sold on Stevia. I’d rather avoid the sweetness whenever possible, to tell the truth.

I wish you had talked about the fillers that go in those Truvia packets. Terrible processing. There are plenty of natural stevia products that as a diabetic I support and use, but I’m not down with this garbage.

Actually the problem with truvia is the use of stevia and the way the erythritol is made. There is a way to naturally make and purify erythritol with no chemicals. Just let the enzymes do the work on the right combination of fruit and vegetable fibers and you get white crystals that are equal to sugar in sweetness and structure.

Nancy, erythritol is the only sugar alcohol that doesn’t cause digest upset and doesn’t contain carbs (well, it has 10g carbs for one WHOLE CUP). They have to list 3g on the packet, but it’s not metabolized by the body that way.

I blend my own erythritol and NuNaturals pure stevia extract for baking. Why perpetuate a love of sweet things? Because it makes my low carb all natural lifestyle doable. Because it makes celebrations happier. Because sweets and fancy desserts are part of our culture, and I like being a foodie.

Truvia is probably better than Splenda. It’s just too expensive for me.

I’m just curious… what motivates someone to shun a food item from diet that has never been found to cause health problems? “Natural” is arbitrary. I would argue there is nothing “natural” about eating berries year round, or dark chocolate, or green tea for that matter. All of these items require technology. What line do you draw which says truvia is not natural, but berries during 15 degree winter weather are natural?

Is it an aversion to hedonism in food? I’ve long suspected morals which make one uncomfortable with hedonistic eating motivate pointless “health freak” behavior. Therefore, truvia is bad because it makes food taste delicious. This makes one feel dirty, out of control, animal-like, take your choice pick of unpleasant adjectives. Berries are good because no one loses control with berries. Splenda coke is bad (even though caffeine has speculated to have some benefits to metabolism)… unsweetened green tea is good because it tastes like crap. Oh you aesthetic, pious observers, maintaining the sanctity of your body. By abstaining from electrifying, will-stealing sensation, you are transcending mortality… this sort of thinking is a distant cousin of the increasingly maladaptive practices of CRON and even anorexia nervosa. Living, point of it, missing you are.

I operate by a very simple principle. If it is bad for me, I don’t eat it. If it makes me feel bad, it is bad for me. I will never eat real cookies because they make me feel terrible. I go insane, I get fat, I stop living. I will gladly eat atkins bars because they make me feel good. I stay thin, I stay sane, I live as best as I can live.

I like living. I like sensation. I like pleasure. Sugared Coke is bad because it makes me feel horrible. The sweet taste is a tiny pleasure compared to everything it steals from me. Unhealthy food steals my life. I’ve lost years of my life to it, because my metabolism doesn’t work.
Diet soda is a pleasure I cannot understand denying myself. It is nice in moderation. Too much and I also feel bad, but a can per day has no effect that I can see or observe other than making me happier for tasting something sweet.

I’ve often remarked it’s such an irony that I feel *best* eating very processed food like atkins bars. Atkins bars, contrary to hype on low carb forums, do promote a deep fat burning for me, thus high energy and stable moods and a lack of hunger. On the other hand, a relatively “safe” food like chicken tends to make me hungry. Too much protein makes me hungry. Rice, forget about it. Sugar covered oil roasted peanuts? Bring it on. Salami, bacon with commercial french onion dip? Sure! Sprouted grains? Get it away from me, it contains the devil. Large amounts of fruit? Ditto. Raisins? Evil. Lots of carrots and peas? Sure, if I want my head to split open and live in hell for awhile.

I eat what makes me feel good. Why remove something from diet that makes you feel good? Splenda makes me feel good, and I am motivated to do pleasurable things.

People who eat raw sugar and honey are either metabolically normal (i.e. no carb intolerance) or they are sugar addicts in denial (i.e. they cannot make the transition from real sugar to artificial sugar because they are junkies, so they create a self delusion that it is healthier to eat “natural” sugar). People who completely abstain from sugar when there are metabolically neutral alternatives simply mystify me, but then again, I am not on the the aesthetic/food purifying trip so I suppose I can’t understand the pleasure in it. I will trust the pleasure they get from not eating artificial sugar is similar to the pleasure I get from eating it, since reward ultimately motivates behavior.

I probably wouldn’t have changed my diet, if I wasn’t sick and it hadn’t effected my body. So, for me it’s a matter of finding health again. But I totally agree with you on the taste factor. That’s why I have gone to trying different sugars that are natural to make bake goods that taste good. I have been expermenting with Luo Han Guo, which is a 1000 year old Chinese Sugar. It has an interesting Buttery Carmel kind of taste, and I been mixing it with Erythitol, and I have plans to try Yocan Syrup to since it’s low glycemic. Anyway, I find mixing different natural sugars helps them to work better in bake goods. I’ve also tried these new sugars Sweet Perfection and Just like Sugar, which are made from Chicory Root. They are very different and expensive to use. Just like sugar kind of has an orange flavoring to it that I’m not crazy about. I would imagine in cetain bake goods it would have the right taste. But an Orange taste in brownies was not what I had in mind. Anyway, I like foods that taste good, and even know it’s work to have to start from the beginning and cook and bake my own, it’s worth it. I stopped eating processed foods, from the middle of the grocery store a while ago because of all kinds of chemicals, perservatives and corn syrup, soy, wheat or glutens that is not good personally for my body. So, please don’t lump everyone into some kind of moral or high ground because they have gone back to a more simple diet that one has to make themself. We are all different in are reasons for heating more healthy.

Amen. Also, the whole “Splenda causes cancer because it’s chlorinated sugar!” line of logic is just absurd. It doesn’t mean you’re eating chlorine. I am married to a chemist, and my mother is a chemist, and both of them after researching heavily on the subject, attest to the safety of Splenda, and both of them use Splenda liberally in their own diets.

Itsthewoo,
I personally have nothing against stevia.. i don’t use it myself as I don’t crave the sweetness really but my wife uses it for her coffee. Truvia on the other hand is a processed monstrosity made from stevia. Therefore I say it is bad because it is heavily processed.

Splenda makes me very sick. So does aspartame. Stevia never did that, but yes, a bit of a funky aftertaste…I sprinkled it on most things but it never awakened cravings in me whatsoever, thats why I liked it [only the powder kind!].

Dave, tell us about your superior gene expression (an overused term in the paleodiet community by people who don’t really know much about it) gotten from eating (neolithic) berries year round, or (neolithic) dark chocolate, or (neolithic) green tea as she mentioned in her comment.

Most dietary choices claimed to be paleo are so far from it as to be laughable.

I didn’t really miss the point as much as I maybe addressed it tangentially and did not really clarify. Let me rephrase as Itsthewoo might have put it.
Eating sugar substitues does not make me feel “good”. In fact, it often makes me feel “bad”. Stevia does not make me feel “bad” or “good” and so therefore why waste the energy trying to include it in my diet? Truvia is one step past stevia… it is processed stevia which as people point out has a sugar alchohol, which placebo or not tends ot make me feel “bad”. Therefore I have no intention of eating it or endorsing it because A. There is a better option out there in unprocessed stevia that I don’t even take advantage of and B. Because I don’t have the least bit of faith that it is not bad for your health due to the processing and track record of heavily processed foods.

I had tried Stevia before, in the extract form, and it had a pretty foul aftertaste, but truth be told it was no worse than the metallic aftertaste of Splenda and it’s ilk.

Stevia of course has been around for many thousands and thousands of years and used since prehistory, but what they did was pick what they felt is the “best” of Stevia and make an extract out of it, patent it, and then doing so having actually bypassed the entire FDA debacle.

Really smart thing to do, and it removed control from the hands of sweetener companies, which had a stranglehold on just about everything diet since the banning of Stevia.

A couple are owned by Monsanto, which you know would drag the process out to maintain their iron grip on the sugar substitute industry, the other major player is owned by a multinational patent-hoarding corporation, which are the least litigious of all corporations(and that was sarcasm).

I do worry about how they extract it, and exactly how they extract the sugar alcohol, I’m sure we’ll get answers soon.

I went out and got some, and it was definitely not sugar, but the flavor of the sweetener is rather nice, it’s a lot lighter than splenda, though it doesn’t quite hit plain sugar, of course.

The aftertaste isn’t there, the Stevia aftertaste I mean, nor is the metallic Splenda aftertaste, the aftertaste that is present is rather pleasant, it lingers on the roof of my mouth for a little bit and is distinctly sweet with a little twang of what may indeed be vanilla.

I’m hoping Coca Cola converts their diet drinks to this, having diabetes means I have to drink a lot of water and diet drinks, so having something less offensive to my taste buds would be a welcome change.

Son of Grok, Grok (aka ItsTheWoo) isn’t interested in a serious discussion. Just another Internet troll looking for a little excitement in their life. My feelings could never be hurt by some faceless incoherent person ranting on an Internet board.

“Oh you aesthetic, pious observers, maintaining the sanctity of your body. By abstaining from electrifying, will-stealing sensation, you are transcending mortality… this sort of thinking is a distant cousin of the increasingly maladaptive practices of CRON and even anorexia nervosa. Living, point of it, missing you are.”

ITW, perhaps you should take the time to find out what this site is about before you come in guns a’blazin with the insults. If you find consuming artificial sweeteners an “electrifying, will-stealing sensation” and your diet soda makes you feel so fulfilled, then drink up! No need to be so defensive. Personally I don’t see how an aversion to consuming man-made, chemically enhanced “foods” is in any way self-deprivation or somehow not living life to the fullest. Priorities I guess…I never got my jollies from a daily fix of “diet” anything.

I tried the truvia and didnot like the aftertaste. I have been using Splenda and find that it is the “best” artifical” sweetener for me. My husband is diabetic and using the splenda has opened up a lot of options for him which keep his blood sugar stable. Forget about him changing his diet or life style. Some people just don’t get it and don’t want to. So splenda has been a big help in this area. I use it instead of sugar and he never knows the difference.

Anybody ever research any info online about the damage these Other artificially made sweeteners have done and continue to do to people?My first experience with Asparteme(aka.Nutrasweet) and Splenda was awful! After 3 times, I understood these products are deadly to my system.They nearly killed me in hospital when they only offered me these products in all the food I got due to my diabetes.-
What if this does so as well? The adverse effects make me seek more answers as to long term safety.
Always open to new yet “safe” ways to enjoy my food….So I will monitor this item for awhile.
(NOTE: Do the research!!)

I have been trying to decide on a brand of stevia to use so I can drop the Splenda. Today I ran across Truvia at Wal-mart. I assumed it was processed but thought it might be a better alternative until I can decide on and order some stevia.

I noticed on the package that it has Erythritol in it. My first thought was it might cause some kind of gastro problems since its a sugar alcohol. I thought I better read up on it to be safe. Reading on Wiki, it appears that it is the least likely of all sugar alcohols to cause gastro problems because its absorbed by the body where other sugar alcohols are not. It did say that if your body reaches a certain level it may not absorb anymore and then cause problems.

While reading I noticed this:
Erythritol At industrial level, it is produced from glucose by fermentation with a yeast, Moniliella pollinis.

The way I ran across Mark Sisson was through Doug Kauffman who teaches yeast is bad.

Me and my wife have been on Doug’s Phase one program a month, and her blood sugars are averaging around 100 instead of 170 and her weight is falling off. I don’t want to introduce yeast and mess her up.

I have been using Stevia Extract in the Raw for the last few months and really like it. It is less expensive than Truvia and does not have the sugar alcohol in it. You can check it out at http://www.steviaextractintheraw.com

To those who said they’ll stick with splenda……..this is what spenda is: it was discovered when pesticides were developed. Splenda also causes: Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage)
Enlarged liver and kidneys.
Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
Increased cecal weight
Reduced growth rate
Decreased red blood cell count
Hyperplasia of the pelvis
Extension of the pregnancy period
Aborted pregnancy
Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights
Diarrhea

According to Consumers Research Magazine “Some concern was raised about sucralose being a chlorinated molecule. Some chlorinated molecules serve as the basis for pesticides such as D.D.T., and accumulate in body fat. However, Johnson & Johnson emphasized that sucralose passes through the body unabsorbed.”

I have a question. Everyone is always posting information about these sweeteners and never provides a source. Yet you don’t request for a source on every single one. Does this mean that you are offended? On that point, may I ask you where got the piece of information that it is made from sugar? Or maybe I should ask everyone on here where they got every single piece of information? But wow, one would need to put a lot of effort just to write a post if they were to include the sources.
Source: Me

Regarding your question about Erythritol it’s not just that it’s a yeast thing – it’s that it’s an artificial compound!

The way I understand it is that the scientists have used the yeast fermentation process to copy the make-up of a ‘natural’ compound, so they can say it’s a natural sugar…. but that doesn’t work for me.

It’s more like a fake Gucci handbag to me. It looks the same, feels the same but isn’t at all the same! It’s made from different stuff, in a different way for a similar but unquestionably different result.

The other new sugar, PureVia has the same problem. The bulking agents they are using are supposedly ‘natural’ but may have been derived the same sort of way …. they use Erythritol and isomalt (that’s been around for years and can also cause diahorrea in high quantities).

I’m hanging out for the new Australian sugar LoGiCane. Saw it there while on holiday. It’s made from cane sugar and is low-GI! Made of 100% cane sugar and nothing else. OK it still has the calories but it doesn’t mess with your insulin levels. I’d rather limit sugar intake and eat that than put something from a laboratory in my body!

“Erythritol is made by enzymatic processes where enzymes break-down natural foods that are a part of your everyday diet (fruits and vegetables). The process that we use to yield the white crystals is the introduction of microorganisms classified as “osmotolerant”. The non-GMO microorganisms are introduced, and during that 3 day “fermentation” process a white crystalline powder is formed. Those crystals are then purified with natural activated charcoal and ultrafiltration, no chemicals involved.”

The Digestibility of erythritol and erythritol causing gas comes from the addition of inulin in the mixture. We have figured out a way to create our own version of an “erythritol” based sweetener that is rapidly absorbed by the small intestine due to the small molecular size and structure. Because more than 90% of ingested swerve is absorbed and excreted unchanged, allowing less than 5% to reach the large intestine, foods containing even a substantial amount of Swerve will not cause digestive discomfort, and are actually able to further promote digestive health by adding beneficial microflora to the diet.

I am no chemist, but I do nkow that Cargill employs a lot of them. So take a plant that CAN’T be patented and try to come up with something that can be patented, (Truvia is patented) and you will need chemistry.

They take the steviol methyl ester, basically the sugar alcohol of the plant, and use acetone to accomlish the outcome. This is not a whole food. When we attempt chemistry with our foods we are bound to pay a very high price. Time will tell how high.

This is the sweetner Doctor Bernstein recommends because in packet form (powder that is) unlike all other artifical packet sweetners contains NO form of SUGAR (aka dextrose or Maltotetraose). Just enough to keep it under a carb and just enough to maintain it as a powder. Liquid or solid cube forms do NOT have dex or Malt- just the powder.
The whole food brand of truvia has a vinilla flavor added

While it’s not something I use on a regular basis, I admit that I’m glad a sweetener has finally emerged that’s considered a bit more “natural.”

That isn’t to say it’s safe or acceptable by any means, but at least it seems to have a lower degree of chemicals compared to most other sweeteners. Personally, I try and avoid all artificial sweeteners, even truvia, yet if I’m FORCED to use one, that’s what I prefer.

I bought Truvia today. There were actually several different types of “stevia” sweeteners. I don’t know exactly why I picked it over the others, just thought I’d try it since I am not a fan of other artificial sweeteners. Straight out of the packet the taste is first sweet and then kinda funky one (not necessarily bad, just indescribable for me) and then back to the sweet, with a little hint of an aftertaste. My final review- I tried it, I liked it in my tea, and I am going to keep my ears open for anything. I think I may also head to the health food store to try the natural stevia.

Just tried truvia for the first time this morning, in my coffee. Have to tell you it tasted pretty good but about a half hour after my coffee I stood up and eas dizzy and have been a bit off balance ever since (approx 3 hour), Also have a slight amount of blurred vision. Hope it all goes away as I’d really like to reduce my sugar intake.

I purchased a box of Truvia, it is nearly gone – hank heaven. It is NOT sweet and has an horrible chemical tase. Corn and all it’s products are a poison for me;I’m giving up looking for substitutes and using good old non-allergenic sugar.

I have pretty much come to the same conclusion as you about sweeteners. The only thing is, if your allergic to corn then you probably are sensitive to sugar too. That is what the allergist told me–they are related. I feel best without sugar, but really have a hard time staying away from it completely.

Came across this website today for some reason. I’ve tried EVERY “artificial” sweetener ever made I think. Sugar just about debilitates me, but I still need sweetness in my coffee, tea, etc.

I’ve tried Truvia, and it’s not my favorite, though I would use it as a backup if I couldn’t get my favorite, which is PUREVIA. Probably very much the same, but for me, there is no aftertaste with Purevia, and it just tastes great. I use it in my coffee, and on my morning grapefruit, and love it. In cooking/baking, it works wonderfully.

I will say this about Splenda – I used it for about 6 or 7 years, and within weeks of being “off” it, I felt better than I had in YEARS. No more headaches, no more fatigue.

Heh. Well I found Woo’s post totally hilarious. Maybe I’m up too late and my sense of humor is warped…

I tried Splenda. It was better than eating real sugar; it was better than stevia (I abhor the anise/black licorice taste, which is what stevia aftertaste is like to me, with a big kick); so I used it some. Then I found sweetzfree.com and started using that, and it’s fabulous, although it has no bulk. I found and have bought like 35 flavors of sugarfree davinci (made with sucralose) which makes a vast difference in many things although the sweetening intensity is not high. There is also “fiberfit” which is 8x sweeter and is a liquid fiber supplement. (Not my thing, just an idea.)

Thanks for the ref to swerve, I just bought some online and will try it out.

I don’t eat sweeteners all that often but when I do, especially at holiday/celebration points, it’s very important to me and to my kid to be able to have that pleasure and take our own stuff to family gatherings where we can’t eat the other stuff.

My wife picked up a box of truvia and I’ve been using it in place of splenda. I don’t have a problem with the flavor, but almost the only thing I sweeten is a cup of hot vanilla milk at bedtime. On occasion, I sweeten iced coffee, but I rarely drink it, so not much usage there.

Really, the people getting their knickers in a twist should get over themselves. I’m neither stupid nor evil for wanting a sweet milky drink at bedtime. Sheesh. And since I just completed my first triathlon (0.5 mi swim, 11 mi bike, 3 mi run) at the tender age of 59, I’m not giving up any ground in terms of health. I’ll be hitting the gym at 4:30 AM tomorrow. Feel free to join me. You can celebrate afterwards with your unsweetened herbal tea, while I indulge my usual eye-opening cuppa joe.

Gotta love how good ol’ fashioned human paranoia will prevent or develope precepts on products that have an “unknown” factor to them. “People fear what they don’t know.” This is directed towards the “I’m not going to try it, cause the boogy man made it” people. That’s why there is the FDA, do they get everything right, NO!, but that’s expected, they are human too. I would put more faith in the time-tested study of the japanese using similiar products for decades now.

All those involved in faking the moon
landing are real scarey motherf*#@er’s. Some of them are on the payroll of FDA
as well as the Artificial Sweetner Industry. Have you ever seen the program
“sweet Misery” It’s on free speech T.V.
By the way why not share your view on
High Fructose Corn Syrup? aka the high calorie artificial sweetner.

I do not trust the FDA to do anything except prevent me from buying nuclear waste that says “NEW-CLEAR WAIST” on it by putting a diclaimer sticker on it saying “This will kill you” so they can say they told me so, hence the “NO!” in my previous statement.

I just tried Vitamin Water 10, multi-v… thinking it used just less sugar… WRONG! It was hideously sweet, so I read the ingredients and found three different “natural” sweeteners! Crystalline Fructose, Erythritol, and Truvia. So that’s THREE companies paying Glaceau to add their product to Vitamin Water instead of simply using less “real” sugar.
Simple, healthy solutions are not being produced when they can and should be.

Unfortunately, all the artificial sweeteners are carcinogenic – by the time they are through running chemicals through “sugar”, your Splenda bears no resemblance to sugar at all, and I suspect it may be the same with Truvia. If you really want to use stevia, get some extract at your local health food store. Better tasting and safer than others are Xylitol (made from a tree bark, also at the health food store) and Agave Nectar (like honey, but a bit thinner). Both are excellent sweeteners. Neither will affect your blood sugar levels – or support Big Ag with your dollars, which is a force in this world more evil than you know.

Just want to comment that a very small amount of Xylitol can kill a dog. I chew sugarless gum and my dog got a hold of the pack and ate much of it. I called the vet out of an abundance of caution and they immediately asked what brand it was and if it was made with Xylitol. (Trident is one brand made with X.) Lucikly I chew Extra made with Aspartame, (which I know is also unsafe and I don’t eat anything else with Aspartame in it), but at least it won’t kill a dog!

I was happy with Splenda until I found out it’s a man made pesticide-like chlorine molecule and not natural at all. Truvia and PureVia are more of the same… more unnatural processing.

For those who CAN eat sugar, I’d recommend buying organic sugar made from pure cane juice. The ONLY ingredient listed is “pressed pure cane juice.” The sugar is tan and tastes a bit like molasses but is more natural than any processed substitute.

For those who can’t eat sugar, I’d recommend pure, organic Stevia from a health food store. Not Truvia or PureVia. If one brand of Stevia doesn’t taste good, try another.

I tried Truvia at a Networking Event about a week ago. I liked it, but found it takes two packets to a large glass of Tea. Since just recently being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and having to give up my sugar, this seems to be very nice and I would not mind cooking with it. I have Splenda in my pantry, but I am not crazy about it. It makes my drinks taste slick or oily.It is hard to describe. I’ve used SweetNLow for years for my Tea. But now that I am doomed…I am finding this Truvia to be a blessing.

Paula you can learn to like tea without any sweetner added to it. Give it a try for 5 to 7 days and you’ll find your taste buds liking the slight bitterness of tea. I drink iced instant green tea and love it.

I have been using Truvia for about 3-4 months now. I love it! For me, it takes less than the other sweeteners, and I do NOT crave sweets. I have been cutting out sugar from my diet as much as possible since January. It is now the later part of August and I’ve lost 29 pounds. I believe it’s a great product!

According to ironwings above: “Better tasting and safer than others are Xylitol (made from a tree bark, also at the health food store) and Agave Nectar (like honey, but a bit thinner). Both are excellent sweeteners. Neither will affect your blood sugar levels…”

Although it may have a slightly lower glycemic load than sugar, Agave nectar consists primarily of fructose and glucose. I believe that the above claim (that it will not affect blood sugar levels) could be harmful to some, and I would hope that people who have a true need to monitor and measure blood sugar levels would not take such advice without doing their own research.

More from Wiki: “..However, the extremely high percentage of fructose (higher than that of high-fructose corn syrup) can be deleterious and can trigger fructose malabsorption, metabolic syndrome[7], hypertriglyceridemia, decreased glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia, and accelerated uric acid formation.[8][9][10] Low-carb diet advocate Dr. Michael Eades M.D. advises to “avoid it [Agave syrup] like death”.[11]”

And xylitol is a sugar alcohol made in a lab that gives you the runs. Everything in moderation. Like plain old sugar. 🙂

I accidentally tried Truvia when I selected a vitamin water (I think it was SoBe) at a Quiznos, avoiding drinking any soda.

I could definitely taste the aftertaste, which turned me off immediately. I don’t consume anything with artificial sweeteners, and even though Truvia claims to be all natural, I’d rather consume real, plain old sugar in moderation.

Only one person mentioned saccharin, which has been around since WWII, at least, because of sugar rationing during that era. It was sold in bottles of tiny tablets and I remember putting 4 or 5 into a glass of iced tea, which was the usual non-alcoholic dinner drink at that time in the south. I still prefer saccharin in cold drinks, like tea and lemonade, as well as in hot tea, although I use only one packet at a time. ALL artificial sweeteners taste weird in hot drinks.

My only experience with Stevia was in an orange flavored tea (Orange Fountain) which was served in a restaurant. Stevia was listed as the sweetener, but there may have been others in it, as well. It was so sweet, it was unpleasant.

Sorbitol (which is in most Sugar-free candies and some chewing gum) sent me to the Emergency Room with severe gastritis, about an hour after I had eaten a few hard candies containing it. So, I’m leery of most of these newer sweeteners, until more is known about them. Strangely enough, white or turbinado sugar doesn’t seem to sweeten as well as it used to, probably because “high-fructose corn syrup” has spoiled me for anything else! It is most definitely sweet – but so detrimental to weight control and general health.

I have tried them all. I grew up with sweet tea with “the pink packets” as it’s sweetener.

I used to like Splenda until I found that it’s use of real sugar really was a clever marketing ploy on the same chemical junk that we’ve all been interesting for years. (Just slightly better tasting)

I switched to stevia powder from whole foods. I found a couple brands that had the bad after-tastes but finally found a couple brands that I LOVED.

When truvia came out I was happy to see stevia go “mass market”. I just bought my first box and found it to be distinctly DIFFERENT than marketed. I was irritated and worried that it wasn’t truly stevia.

That being said, it is all things good in my coffee LOL. It is so much better than the stevia and I like that it doesn’t effect my blood sugar.

The jury is still out. I think I may buy it again, but then again, I may not. Time will tell.

High fructose corn syrup is an
artificial sweetner with calories. used
in place of sugar in many processed foods these days becuase it is way cheaper and the corporations are all about money.The food industry including the FDA tries to keep these facts from the public. truvia is not good.High fructose corn syrup, aspartame, nutra sweet,splenda, sweet&low,are artificial and very harmful. BEWARE!Stick with REAL stevia or Real sugar

I haven’t tried truvia- it’s not natural
so i won’t. This could be helpful…
I grow my own stevia and there is no
aftertaste, I sometimes buy stevia at
the health food store and there is no
aftertaste. I believe some of the brands
sold at different stores such as walmart may have an aftertaste so try
different kinds and maybe you’ll find
one that you really like. Sugar is fine
in moderation for most people.happiness
is so much easier to find if we’re in good health. Good luck to you all!

An article I was reading today pointed out that the first evidence of humans seeking a sweetener was a 10,000 year-old cave painting depicting gathering of honey. The modern sweetener known as refined sugar has been in use in the western world for a thousand years and even longer in the Middle East and Far East. All of which is by way of preface to the idea that use of sweeteners is neither modern nor evil. In an environment in which you are primarily sedentary, or when you have a medical condition like diabetes, it makes sense to control your caloric intake, so artificial sweeteners come into play. If a person uses common sense to regulate diet, that regulation includes sweeteners. If you’re a monk or a nun, self-purification as a sustaining virtue may make sense to you. Me, when I want to purify, I work out and then spend an hour in the sauna. There are so many things of importance in this life, fretting over which sweetener to use has got to be low on the list. Take care of yourself, be aware of what you’re eating, live within your means and be thankful for what you have. For most of us, that’s practically a guarantee of a long, happy, healthy life.

Folks, Stevia has been available from Trader Joe’s for some time. I stock up, as the nearest Joe’s is 200 miles away. It’s in the food supplement department. Ingredients: Stevia & Lactose (used to cut it’s strength – sorry, probably not for the lactose intolerant). Dried leaf Stevia tastes a little, ummm, “green”. I don’t plan to go the Cargill route. The stuff from Trader Joe’s – no aftertaste I can discern.

I’ve been using Stevia for some time. I use it in my coffee daily. If I run out I will use a very small amount of cane sugar which to me seems to have almost no taste, as the Stevia is so sweet. It takes very little Stevia to sweeten coffee. I find the little packets have too much in them for one cup of coffee, more like 2.5 to 3 cups of coffee. So saving whats left is a problem, it spills out, etc. That’s where Cargill’s conspiricy comes into being. They plan on you losing 30% of your Stevia, so you will end up buying more at there pre-set very high retail price. I like the nice Green box it comes in, it could hold 4x’s as much product, so selling air is figured into the price, plus more packaging for the landfills. Great Stuff! As a Diabetic it makes my coffee taste great and makes my day! The after taste isn’t much of a big deal.

I just purchased my first box of Truvia from the local grocery store this past week. I was just doing a little research as to the safety of the product and found this website. I tried it for the first time this morning in my MickeyD’s iced coffee. I usually use raw sugar because I try to stay away from the processed stuff. I used one packet and it was just enough. I did not find any aftertaste either. I also bought some Vitamin Water lite, which I see also uses Truvia. I wasn’t as impressed. It did have a slight after taste much like the artificial sweeteners which I do not use at all. I certainly would like to know if there is any new news out there about this product. I don’t want to recommend it to anyone if it’s not safe.

I’ve used truvia as a transition from sugar (usually turbinado style sugar, which I had convinced myself was “healthier”, or even sometimes honey) to no sweetener at all in my coffee. Over a few weeks, I was able to use less and less truvia until one day I made the plunge and just started going without.

I bought Truvia at Walmart some weeks ago and have been trying it in my hot tea in the mornings. I, too, was happy to find a “natural” sweetener. I have been carrying a supply of packets in my purse to “sweeten” iced tea at restaurants. I recently noticed my face and neck getting flushed after use. Developed a rash on my neck, as well. Anyone know what may cause this reaction? I’m going to stop using it.

I enjoy using Truvia. Is there any scientific studies on this product or Stevia out there that we can look up? Trusting Cargill with our food saftey is something that needs to be looked into. I don’t know the brand name, but I did get to try some Stevia that was in form just like Truvia and it was great. The person that had it bought it from a online Health food store. Seems to be quite a few variations on how Stevia is processed.

I have been dealing with candida, Sugar feeds the bad bacteria, and the bacteria makes you crave sugar. Have started useing “NOW French Vanilla Stevia Extract” With good results, it eliminated my cravings for sugar. As for tast like any thing you try for the first time is different, Its sweet with no bitter after taste, Could be the vanilla taste which I like. Just saw the Truvia comerical, and plan on giving it a try. If it has after-taste, I’ll try putting in a dash of vanella, and see if it makes a difference. At best my guess is it will help with bacteria fed by sugar diseases, candida, endometriosis, exc.

we have been conned into do everything to lose weight EXCEPT be active and eat right…pills, chemicals, etc
The absolute LAST way to be healthy is by replacing food with chemistry. Let’s NOT be lazy cattle anymore and help put soulles companies like Dargil out of business.

I bought a box of Truvia at Walmart. I was going to grab Splenda, but grabbed Truvia instead.

After a week of having Truvia in my coffee, it’s ok, but odd. Weird aftertaste and I doubt I will buy it again.

What bothers me is deceptiveness of the presentation on the box. As with Splenda, the box would have you believe it’s at natural as mother’s milk.

Obviously I’m ok with fake, because I still buy Splenda. But even Splenda limits the lies to “tastes like sugar because it’s made from sugar.” Ummmm yeah. Splenda is manufactured and a bag of sugar had nothing to do with it.

Back to Truvia, if you read the ENTIRE box, a fraction of the text indicates that erythritol is the main ingredient, not rebiana. With all that glowing text about stevia and rubiana, you would think rubiana would be the main or only ingredient.

For those of you who are horrified by my use of Truvia or any other fake sweetner, I respect your beliefs that artificial sweeteners are bad and undesirable. I’m not an idiot and my choices are informed, even it they are not the choices you folks might make. Please, no pontification, condescension, and general rudeness, OK?

It never ceases to amaze me how diverse the human body is. We are each unique individuals. Having said that, I find truvia very satisfying for me. I have tried”everything almost” and truvia is the one I have settled on for now. I still would prefer to find the Aussie LoGiCane,but even someone who lives in Australia can’t find it for me.??

I just switched from 5 years of Splenda use to Truvia and really like it. It doesn’t desolve as quickly in cold drinks but thats okay. I would also like to stop using sweetener but I have the perverbial “sweet tooth”. I will make a bigger effort however. Splenda’s lack of long range testing started to make me worry so I’ve stopped using it. Does anyone know of the REAL benefits of drinking V8 products? I know it isn’t related except that I see sucralose as a sweetener in some of those and that is basically splenda. Do V8 products REALLY provide honest benefits?

I’m diabetic and I have used Truvia. I like it but its expensive and I just decided to forget sweeteners. I just go without sugar in my white tea and like a poster here said you get used to it. healthier and cheaper too. Why do Americans refuse to eat things unless it tastes like candy or ice cream?

I used Stevia in the Raw the first time I tried stevia, but this summer grew my own plant, harvested the leaves – several at a time – dried them on my kitchen counter and then just crushed them and added them to whatever I wanted sweetened, (tea, cereal, baked apples, etc.). It worked great and I do not notice anything but a very mild after taste that is not bothersome. I’d rather have that than all of the chemicals they use to “extract” the plants sweetness. First time I caught you site think it’s wonderful.

I received a box of Truvia for free, and over the last few days have been tasting it poured out on my hand. I thought it actually tasted better than sugar, with a light and citric effervescence after taste. I haven’t eaten much of it, and don’t intend to. But, I plan to be using it in some dishes and will probably quite enjoy it!

I have been unable to have ANY artificial/ “calorie free” sweetner due to the fact they have ALL made my tongue numb and throat all scratchy. Truvia was suggested to me by one of my customers and I AM SOOOO EXCITED to say NO effects were felt after having this product! It taste great (like real sugar) and I feel very blessed to have found it!

I’m in the line of thought that it’s better to avoid artificial sweeteners. Here’s why – by using them, it becomes a crutch. Mentally you’re buying into an idea that you’re being “deprived”.

Mark had written in his article about chocolates about how you’ll be surprised at how your tastebuds adjust. I can support that comment 100%. I’m able to drink milk coffee without adding a spoon of sugar, and not out of deprivation, I actually don’t WANT to add any. Same thing with table salt.

Takes a while to adjust, but if you can go one week cold, or start reducing gradually you’ll see.

Then you can have your dark chocolates even every day if you are disciplined enough (only 8g in a serving of Lindt 85%). If we’re eliminated the grains, you can still have the wine etc etc. Mark says 1. Know what your putting in your body 2. Know what the different foodtypes do in excess 3. Keep your ratio correct. 4. Take responsibility 5. 80/20.

But seriously, for me sweeteners should be something temporary to get off sugar, but not permanent. Because then the psychological addiction/craving is still there. We’re physically addicted to sugar, but addictions are often more psychological. So artificial sweeteners perpetuate that addiction.

I’ve tryed truvia, and its not that bad, but not good for me as it turns out. I’ve done other fake sugars, but they seem to bother my stomach and don’t agree with me. So when I seen this product, I thought, wow, this sounds good, I’ll try it. The first time I did in about a half hrs. time I was feeling nervous and my heart was beating faster then it should, but I thought maybe it was something else. But to do a test on my self, I didn’t have any the next day, and I felt fine. But then when I tryed it the next day, wham! the same feelings again. Thats what led me to see what is in this stuff, and I came apoun this web site. SO! I guess I’ll stick to good ole sugar…

I think when it comes to this subject if there was a double blind survey and half got the sugar pill thinking they got Truvia they would still come up with all they strange symptoms they people are reporting. I’ve been using many different types of Stevia products and find no strange symptoms of any kind, they all taste fine. Im staying away from Truvia as a brand as it is made by a company I could not trust any more than I could trust a company like Monsanto.

I cant stand any artificial sweeteners especially truvia and stevia. I’ve tried both in tea or over some fruit and my side effects were peeing like a race horse and a spike in hungry 15 to 20 mins after consuming. I’ll stick to honey which is ten times better for you…….

I have tried many different brands of Stevia and all but the powdered ones ( with fillers of course) I have never had any stomach cramps or any ill effects. A In-Law does all her cooking ( pies, cakes,etc) with Stevia and serves plenty of people her foods and drinks. No one has any ill effects. I vote for stevia, turvia on the other hand may be over processed and could be a new life form for all we know.

I have been using Stevia from Better Herbs for 2 to 3 years now and I love it. I also cook with it occasionally. I am a diabetic and it does not affect me at all and never has. I tried truvia when it first came to walmart and I don’t like it as it is not sweet at all compared to stevia. i also called the company because it said other natural ingredients. but they would not tell me what those ingredients were. they said it was the companies formula and could not disclose it. I stopped using it because I want to know the whole ingredient not just part of it.
Lorraine Kollek

Truvia is not very good. I have grown stevia and also bought a vanilla stevia from the natural market for my coffee. Since I ran out I picked up a box of truvia, it’s nasty! I tossed the box and went down to the health food store and got my vanilla stevia liquid again. Yummy and better than sugar.

It seems that there’s a lot of oxy-moron statements going on about the breaking down process to make the stevia plant into truvia sugar by the use of chemical. Those of you whom are the oxy-moronist (if you will) should probably be quite more concerned about what they are feeding the cows, pigs and chickens you eat before making such bitter/sweet remarks about truvia.

want something sweet but safe without chemical, cancer or diabetes?? grow stevia yourself, pick the leaves, wash and boil them.. keep the liquid refrigerated and one bottle of 1 litre will supply you sweetener for a month! i grow stevia, pure organic and 100% safe! pick the leaves and put into your cooking and you will free from doubt of chemicles!

I have stage 1 multiple-myeloma and have started chemo and all that fun stuff. I have also started to look at my diet and make changes that will help with fighting the myeloma.

my only vice right now is coffee. one cup in the morning. I quit drinking alcohol and have limited my intake of sweets and candy. As I change my diet I’ve been told to cut out refined sugars.

I’ve tried Truvia and like it. No bad after taste and only one packet made my coffee taste as if I’d used 2tbs of sugar. But after reading The Truth about Truvia I’m back to square one on what to sweeten my coffee with.

First of all Rebiana A is not Stevia. It is an extract of Stevia. If you use the dried, ground leaf (it’s a green powder, not a white crystal) there is no aftertaste. But FDA has twisted the arms of all the companies that used to sell ground Stevia leaf to remove it from the shelves & sell only the extracts (with the aftertaste). Caulk 1 up for the sugar lobby. Hey! The USDA subsidizes the sugar industry. You don’t think they’re gonna encourage it’s replacement, do ya?
I have asked a family member who is a professor of chemistry to look into the whole sugar alcohol thing (erythritol) as there isn’t much public info yet.
I tried Truvia and wasn’t impressed. It does still have the aftertaste. Just not as much. It also isn’t as sweet. And at $6 for a box of 40 packets, that works out to about $20 a lb. That works out to 53 times the price of sugar. Who can afford that? And I won’t go into Cargill’s underhanded political dealings outside the U.S.
Nope. Truvia isn’t the answer.

“If you use the dried, ground leaf (it’s a green powder, not a white crystal) there is no aftertaste.”
———————————
In reference to the natural(ground leaf) product having no aftertaste, that is ABSOLUTELY 100% NOT TRUE. It may be healthier, but its bitter taste is completely overpowering even in very small quantities. I know. I purchased a pound of it from a very organic company based in Oregon. NEVER AGAIN! Truvia, even though its long-term effects are unknown, tastes MUCH better.

I tried Truvia while on vacation and continued to use it for a month. After trying to figure out why I’ve been so fatigued and what I’ve been doing differently I realised after drinking coffe with this product in it I became very tired. I stopped using this product yesterday and have started feeling somewhat better. I did some reading and people are stating side effects on the internet and one of them is fatigue.

Try another brand. I switched to Stevia in the Raw. It seems to be a good stevia product. I have tried that stuff from Trader Joes and if you like that awful filler they use in it go for it, it does taste bad,sorta like eating drywall dust.
I have still a few packets of Truvia and after trying many different products it is the one that doesn’t seem to taste like Stevia at all, I don’t know what it is but it’s not Stevia, it’s more of a ” It’s Not Butter” type of product. I heard the best stuff is the liquid form that comes in a little bottle, you use one drop in your tea or coffee , and it works great my daughter uses Stevia this way and she likes it. Too many refined fake products out there. Once you find the brand you want you may like it.
Try growing it, we have some in the greenhouse , can’t wait to try it out, and it’s legal too!

My concern with Truvia is the ingrediant “Natural Flavors” listed as one of the ingrediants in Truvia. Isn’t that a catch all phrase that companies use to hide something not heathly like “MSG” or some other chemical that’s just to long for them to list that they really don’t want us to know about. . .I personally am staying away from products that will not tell the whole truth in their product list.

Eat real sugar in moderation and stop feeding ourselves with man made chemicals and preservatives, processed foods and sugars. All this junk, is what is making us sick and our kids overweight. Rediscover clean whole eating.

I’m not a big fan of artificial sweetners. Partly due to my coca cola addiction and the fact that nothing tastes good except real coke. I recently came off coke cold turkey and have lost almost 20 pounds (also with a new workout routine). I have been reading the posts because I recently tried Truvia and like it ok in tea. I am trying to get my mom to stop using equal and sweet and low and change to Truvia because i was told it was healthier. Thanks for all the info here. It’s good to hear other peoples thoughts and experiences. Here’s my 2 cents on artificial sweetners. In 2005 I lost my precious mother in law to a brain aneurism. After her death, a friend who is a nutritionist asked me if she had a habit of using artificial sweetners because there had been some link to the two. My father in law is diabetic and in caring for him she had gone totally to artificial sweetners – mainly equal. She used it in tea, coffee, recipes, etc. It hit me really hard when she asked me that question. I can’t say for sure that it caused her illness. But I do know that I will not ever be able to use equal, sweet and low, and the like. Some people on here commented that they had headaches after using them and hearing that really bothers me. And I don’t want my own mom using it. She is borderline diabetic though and doesn’t want to use real sugar so I am looking for alternatives. Thanks for all the adivce. I hope my input can help someone as well. My new favorite drink – water!

I switched to products made from Stevia. Unless someone can convince me that Truvia is nothing more than a highly over processed version of stevia changing it into a sugar alcohol I won’t be using it. I had two packets of Truvia that I used when I ran out of Stevia and it doesn’t seem to taste anything like Stevia, when I then use a real Stevia product I can tell the difference. Unless proven otherwise I would not use Truvia. A wolf in sheeps clothing? I wonder.

I love natural sugar, always have and always will. That being said, I tried Truvia, and while it is ok, but not great, in cold drinks, it practically does nothing in hot drinks like coffee or tea, which is where I wanted to use it to lose some weight. So, back to sugar I went, because life is to short to be gagging on bad tasting coffee just to be able to fit into slim jeans again..lol. Thank god my husband loves me, no matter what I look like. =)

Just my two cents: I went completely sugar free for 3 weeks after being an addict. Withdrawals people! Stevia does not help with withdrawals or anything, but I used it sparingly in oatmeal, plain yogurt (until I found a brand of whole milk Greek yogurt that didn’t need it–Trader Joe’s) and tea. Don’t love the flavor but I still use it in place of sugar, mostly in iced tea. The key is to use very very little so it enhances the flavor of what you’re using it in and doesn’t it. I generally use about half a packet at a time. I agree that using quality products lessens the need for sweeteners in the first place.

Perhaps those of you worried about the overprocessed nature of Truvia, could try stevia in its dried herb form. I toss a pinch in the tea ball when I brew my tea to get a lovely sweet with very little aftertaste. While that may not be ideal for baking, you could toss it into oatmeal while cooking.

I’ve run the gamut of sweetners,,, beginning with the pink, the blue and the yellow as I’ve tried progressively to improve my health… yet still enjoy a little sweetness. I’ve been using pure stevia for about 3 years (coffee and tea). A little goes a long way. While on extended vacation I couldn’t get stevia so I tried to Truvia. I started craving sweets! Side-effect or psychological? I haven’t eaten or craved sweets since on Stevia. (Generally, I don’t eat anything with sugar in it.) Well, I switched back to Stevia and the cravings stopped. Has anyone else experienced this?

I think Truvia tastes great and when I was having trouble with loss of appetite, it improved my diet by making calorie rich egg-based custards palatable without causing a blood sugar spike. It doesn’t make me feel sick in any way (unlike Splenda) and it’s much more efficient than plain erythritol.

BUT — I did develop a sweet tooth! I have NEVER felt a need to sweeten tea, coffee, or even baking chocolate — I just don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But with truvia, all of a sudden (and right away) it was like I couldn’t go a day without some truvia-sweetened food or drink. I felt like I was becoming attached to the stuff. Very strange.

What stevia preparation would you say tastes most like truvia? I would try stevia instead if it lacks this apparent side-effect!

it would seem all sugar or sweetener is simply no good for us. ill just drink my coffee black. at least that way im not eating something that causes cancer.. i know i know what does not cause cancer today.. good point. that brings me to my next statement.. that we as a country need to get back to grass roots farming. good clean crops. we try to drink milk here at my place that is whole milk from the farm rather then the super processed crap they would like you to think is milk but looks more like white water.

The problem for me is that anything really sweet like this causes me to crave other sweet items.

My issue is that I am trying to get rid of a sweet tooth. I do fine without eating sweets most of the time…but once I have a bit, I’m like a GREAT White shark who tastes blood in the water. I’ll crave things like…

* Skittles
* Red Vines
* Gummy Bears
* Starburst

For me is just helps to avoid anything that is sweet beyond what nature intended. Even if Truvia is safe…it isn’t safe for me 🙂

ok, i’ve been using stevia products for about 2 yrs now and truvia for about a year and all i have is good things to say about it, it leaves no aftertaste, well maybe the first time you use it but after that its all good. I bake with it, use it in tea, lemonade, u name it! Make your own sprite with a can of club soda one lemon and 1 pack of stevia. Nobody notices the difference when they eat cakes made with truvia, actually the only complaint i ever got from family/friends is that it was ‘too sweet’. Lets be real guys, the list of ‘bad things’ about real sugar, splenda, aspartame etc is like a mile long, the ill effects have been documented for yearssss!!! Stevia has been used for years in china with not one documented bad case. Im not saying there arent any, but if i already which roads to hell, then ill take my chances with the roads that i dont know, so give me truvia anyday.

I switched to Stevia in the Raw, the 9.7 oz bag, which is the same in bulk as a 5 pound bag of sugar .It’s light weight version so you can measure it for cooking. Tastes great! I’m growing a couple of stevia plants and it tastes the same as the leaves. Great stuff. I would recommend this product.

Some of you are too judgemental of others’ eating habits. Some of us are not against science as it has, (go figure), helped us in the past. Vaccines are not “natural” but that doesn’t stop you from getting immunized does it? I will admit that splenda scares me and I hope to find that truvia doesn’t have the same carcinogens in it that splenda and other artificial sweeteners have.

I want to make a half and half truvia/real sugar sweet tea. I’m hoping it will reduce calories while eliminating or masking the aftertaste of truvia. Southerners can’t go without a nice cold glass of sweet tea.

Just stopped all splenda and aspartame after five years of use. I had major toxic reactions. Parasthesia, numbness and tingling, anxiety and depression. I will never use artificial sweeteners of any kind unless I have seen 20 plus years of studies with no side affects reported. I use a little honey and table sugar from time to time. Check out Dr Janet Starr Hulls sites about artificial sweeteners. A real eye opener. Lots of people are having very bad toxic reactions that they do not even know it is from the sweeteners. I just eliminated it when I had symptoms and then I had all those other symptoms. It messed up my hormones as well. I am still in the process of getting it all out of my system. Who knows what the long range effects will be. I just want to warn people to stop if you are using them. Do not start using this new product. It was five years till I had toxic build up so by then the damage is done.

all this debate over which fake, processed thing to eat. i just don’t get it. eat real things. if you want to have a sweet cup of coffee in the morning, put in a spoon or two of organic raw sugar and be done with it.

don’t drink soda. eat a piece of cake or a cookie once a month. enjoy nature’s candy: fruit.

since i gave up fake sweeteners about 10 months ago, i have lost weight and my skin looks amazing, let alone whatever other invisible changes have taken place.

Stevia isn’t fake, I have one plant in the garden right now, chew a leaf and it tastes the same as what you buy in the store. Same thing with Sugar Cane you go to Cuba and walk the Sugar Cane fields, cut of a piece and chew it and it tastes just like the sugar we all know so well. This doesn’t work with corn,no matter how long you chew it it still tastes like corn. Or you go into a chemist lab and taste some chemicals,then you know what where they get sweet-n-low , etc. I also stop the experiment with going to China and tasting any real thing that they use for sweeteners, as it could be the same stuff they use to make cheap chewing gum and put in there cheap auto’s. Stevia is real, grow one and you will see for yourself. The question still is is Truvia really Stevia? I’m not so sure about that one.

As with any artificial sweetener, stevia too has to be processed and chemically modified for commercial sale/use. Nothing the no-sugar industry sells you is intended to benefit your health but rather to benefit their bottom line.

The Stevia Herb is real. Sow your own seeds, grow your own stevia plant, use the leaves instead. One leaf (use like mint leaves) will sweeten a nice cup of tea/coffee, and a few more chopped will do great in a cake or pie or other dish.

Note that stevia is a tropical herb, that is why it’s availability is somewhat limited. However there are several reliable online seeds stores out there that sell good quality seeds. Be sure seeds are not older than 6 months as they tend to loose viability with age.
Just google “fresh stevia seeds”

IS IT SO HARD FOR THESE COMPANIES TO JUST USE LESS SUGAR!? Sugar has such a strong presence and all you have to do with a light drink is use LESS of it. It will taste virtually the same as all of these watered down artificial sweetener jokes.

They can’t use less sugar, or should we say less Corn Syrup. They won’t sell a can of soda without the high concentration. Try this Carbonated water, stevia, and some lemon juice.

The new prediction is 1 in 3 Americans will have type 2 diabetes by 2030. Even health food types don’t realize that High Fructose Corn Syrup is the Main Cause of this modern disease will develop it not realizing what the problem is.

I had my second encounter with Stevia today and like the first time, it wasn’t pleasant. The first time was about eight months ago when I drank two cans of Zevia, which I purchased from Whole Foods. I became nauseous, dizzy, and incoherent. I figured it must have been something I ate or drank recently so I google ‘stevia side effects.’ I saw references to inhibiting the metabolism of carbohydrates to energy.

Today I started using a new energy drink called Heed from Hammer Nutrition. I didn’t read the ingredients close enough. I had the same symptoms as I mentioned above. A quick check of the ingredients and there it was. No chance this is a coincidence.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences with Stevia. Thanks.

I have not had a positive experience with Turvia and Stevia either, but I do have a Compromised Immune System, so, I may be more sensitive than others. I also do not enjoy the bitterness of Stevia and I have dried several brands that say they have no bitter taste. The only product that I have been able to use with Stevia that does not have a bitter taste to it is “100% Egg White Protein” by Vitol. Also, I have gone over to another Zero Calorie sugar called “Lakanto” That is a lot like a brown sugar. Like Truvia it has Erythitol, but instead of Stevia it has “ Luo Han Guo”, which for me has no aftertaste. This sugar does not have any fillers like Truvia either. It’s just Erythitol and Luo Han Guo. I have already used it in my pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and I have also used it in my cookie recipes, and there is no aftertaste, and no cooling sensation from the Erythitol. I personally like it better than Truvia. My only complaint is that it’s expensive and it’s hard to find. But if more people like, so it ends up in Whole foods then maybe the price will come down. But, I have gone through many sugars and for me it’s worth buying, because there are no reactions to my body with it. So, for the occasional celebrations, and occasional sweet tooth’s. I will probably continue to use “Lakanto”, until something more healthy comes along. But is any sugar good? Ok, has anyone heard of Trehalose sugar? Would be interested in know people’s thoughts on that one too. It’s low calorie and a few less carbs than regular sugar, and low glycemic. But it’s supposed to be good for the immune system, if that’s even possible.

I had surgery June 25th and until today have had chronic diarhea since June. First I was positive for salmonella took antibiotics and that was fixed but still had the diarhea. I have been using Truvia since last May and stopped it yesterday morning. And guess what? The diarhea isn’t as bad! Mmmmmmm…..I’ll keep you posted.

truvia is not natural and has problems and to me it has an aftertaste and a terrible one. for one thing it is not pure stevia and the first ingrediant and the main ingredient is erythritol which is a sugar alcohol and has a lot of health detriments that come with eating it as all sugar alcohols do. why not pure stevia?, it tastes good actually great. Get stevia from wisdom of the ancient that is pure stuff and this is the only manufacturer that I know of that puts out a pure stevia product.

I use Truvia for my 1 cup of coffee in the morning thats it. I like the taste and have never had a problem with it. I dont let my kids drink anything diet or use artificial sweetners…my daughter had small seizures a few years ago when she drank the fruit 2o waters made with splenda. I workout alot so I watch my sugar intake and that is the only reason I use it.

It has taken 35 years to find out why I had such sever skin out brakes. 7 specialists including the Mayo Clinic just kept taking pictures of it and giving me tons of creams and ointments and perscriptions. They guessed everything from Lupus to Some names I can’t even pronounce…THEY WERE ALL WRONG! My regular GP mentioned that she did something stupid to bring on a headache she had. I asked what, and she said she ate something that had an artificial sweetner (Splenda) in it. We got to talking about side effects and she mentioned that severe skin rashes (acne like) was also one.
The light went on. My skin problems started then…kept getting worse. One month ago I quit Splenda and guess what. My skin is almost totally cleared up. I also lost my cravings for carbs. My appetite is less than it used to be. and I dropped 1 size without trying. I do have Truvia around for coffee and that’s about all. I tossed all products with “lite” “diet” on the labels. (I even had sugar free ice cream!) I keep agave in the house, truvia and good old sugar (for baking). So far, my blood glucose is back to a pre diabetic reading. My self control on all foods is so much better. Personally I find Splenda and the others food porn. The Truvia can be used sparingly. I like the agave on fruit.
Who knew what I thought was helping me, was causing so many problems.

About 6 years ago I started seeing a neurologist for migraine headaches…underwent CT scans, MRIs, even had a lumbar puncture. The Dr tried every migraine med on the market….even had me on antisezuire meds. I finally weened myself off the meds and decided I would just suffer. Two years ago my blood pressure started going up and I was having heart palpitations so I started seeing a cardiologist as well.

On a whim (after using it for 10 years), I stopped using splenda altogether. All of my problems went away. No more (daily) headaches and my blood pressure is back to 100/54.

I just recently bought stevia and have been really hesitant to use it, but so far I haven’t had any problems. I use 1-2 packets a day (coffee and/or tea).

I’ve never liked the taste of sweetners and never liked the thought of artificial sweetner either. With this low carb diet I started every recipe has some sort of sweetner in place of sugar. I’ve wondered about Truvia, but don’t trust it as it’s too new, and it’s good to read others experiences with it. At this point I’ve pretty much opted out of sweetening things: use turbinado sugar and raw organic honey on occasion.

I just bought a box of Truvia, hmm now I’m really hesitant to even use it. I tried Stevia, I hate that aftertaste. I use a little bit of honey on my tea. I thought I’d try Truvia but now I’m not sure what to think.

I don’t get it? Why is everyone talking about truvia and stevia look on the back they have the EXACT same ingredients. Truvia apparently uses a better tasting part of the “plant” I personally think truvia has a much better taste. I dont know much about the safety but I do know stevia is the same as truvia

“I need to point out that dried fruit IS NOT an appropriate treatment for a very low blood sugar as many hypoglycemics in crisis do not have the energy/available calories or coordination to be able to chew it.” Yikes the next time I get low blood sugar I won’t eat any dried fruit. I’ll go out and milk a grass fed cow at the neigbours farm ! Thanks ! I didn’t realize I could not chew anymore.

I was told 10 years ago that I have alarmingly high blood sugar, borderline diabetic and sugar crashes almost daily. I was told to cut out ALL sugar but if I had to use them then use Splenda because it was actually made from sugar and therefore safe. Fast forward 10 years and we know that splenda is very dangerous, is toxic and causes cancer as well as other health issues. I am a recent TruVia convert and coffee-holic. I hope that I don’t find out in 10 years that Truvia has my melted my brain cells! 🙂

The Question still remains. Is Truvia Safe? So far no one that is a chemist or researcher, scientist working in this field has made a post that show us some insight. Just like Splenda and it’s problems, all of this is speculation.Truvia can’t be trusted. My feelings are use stevia, something close to the natural plant extract, and to stay away from any large corporation that feels it needs to make and cook our food products. Who do you trust Grandma making your food or some greedy corperation and with there CEO flying around in a corp. jet looking for more suckers to sucker in.

Yep, a bit over the top. I think it is a good thing to question Truvia’s safety because they’ve moved away from natural to make that product. the description of corporations as some kind of evil marketeers makes it seem as if you may have an agenda that has nothing to do with Truvia. That will make people discount your whole post, and that would be a shame.

Craving sweetness really is just a habit. I think we’d all agree that no sugar and definitely no artificial sweeteners is the optimum. You can reduce your “need” for sweetness by just cutting down a little every week or so till you reduce it to zero eg for tea/coffee. I’ve found I can at least halve quantities of sugar in any recipe and it tastes great. As someone said, a LITTLE in moderation is usually ok.

I recently tried it in Vitamin Water Zero. I was shocked at first, because it was zero calories and didn’t use saccharin, aspartame, etc., and because I actually really liked it. Then I did a little research and found that the “natural sweeteners” they claim they use is something new called “Truvia.” Having recently stopped drinking coffee or diet sodas because of hypersensitivity to caffeine, I’m at a loss for flavored drinks that don’t come with a boatload of calories. But for now, I guess I’ll keep my Truvia consumption to a minimum.

Personally my 3 favorite sweeteners to bake with are “Lakanto”, which is a combination of Erythitol and Luo Han Guo that is my favorite, and I use it for a Brown Sugar taste in Bake Good and I mix it with a couple of tablespoons of Yacon Syrup. My second favorite is “Swerve”, which is a combination of Erythitol and Chicory Root, which is my white sugar replacement for bake goods like in Lemon bars, and then there is “Nature’s Hollow Sugar Free Honey Substitute” which is made from Xyitol. I use that one to replace Agave Nectar in Recipes such as my muffins or cupcakes. I’ve tried Truiva and Z Sweet, and I am not crazy about the aftertaste of Stevia. I have tried other Stevia products too. My husband and I do not like the taste of Stevia. Oh well, everyone is different. But even know I have eaten Low Carb/Paleo for over 7 years, I still have cravings for sweets every once and awhile, and fruit or vegetables is not enough on those particular days. So, when I do, I pull out one of those sweeteners that I have mentioned above.

i started using truvia and the aftertaste is annoying but it also irritated my gums a bit. i only use maybe a 1/4 tsp in tea and still it was annoying/irritating. i was wonderng if anyone had this side effect and or may know why it can irritate gums. so i stopped and my gums feel better…anyone have an idea? is that a side effect of erithrytol (sp?)

As an older male with stage 4 cancer, it is crucial that I adjust my diet wherever possible to slow the growth and giving whatever time I can to extend what life I have left. Cancer is known to feed on sugar, therefor eliminating it from my diet is critical. Of course there are other diet adjustments I have made as well, not just sugar. Aspartame in other substitutes knock them out since studies show aspartame to promote cancer. Splenda is out. The only substitute thusfar I have been able to locate is without the “bad” ingredients is Truvia, at least according to their label claim. I can adjust to small differences it has to sugar, what ever gives me extra time! I used it to replace sugar in my coffee, the only time I use sugar. I find no after taste. It really does not have the taste of sugar that I like in my coffee, but it helps considerably. I found that two teaspoons really has no more flavor than one, or even three fourths teaspoon in my coffee. Bottom line is that it replaces sugar in my coffee and yes, coffee is next on the list of things I enjoy, to be deleted from my diet. Cancer sucks.

Truvi has been a blessing for me. After just 2 1/2 weeks of using Truvia, cutting out sugar, bread, or pasta I no longer have a sugar craving. Cake and cookies are easy to pass by and I have lost 10 pounds since Memorial Day. I had tried Stevia but did not like the after taste. No after taste with Truvia.

Hi Dave and thanks for the great post. I was just faced with the typical selection at a nice restaurant (okay, so it’s Kennedy airport in NYC), Sweet&Low, Equal, Splenda, Sugar and this stuff called Truvia. I’ve seen it before however, I was never in a position to immediately “Google” the product before trying it as I was today and your blog is the one I chose.
I do not always put sugar in my coffee and yet sometimes I simply like it a little sweet. I have been using Splenda in an attempt to try and stay away from sugar to lose some weight.

I grew a Stevia plant once, just because I was fascinated that it was there at the nursery. I tasted one of the leaves, which was ridiculously sweet and never did anything with the rest of the plant. I work on a plane so it eventually died.

Skip forward a year or so and here I am. I open the small white and green package and take a little taste. Whoa! That’s some sweet stuff. It looks more like sugar than Splenda and I have to wonder what it would be like to bake with. I do have Systemic Lupus with End Stage Renal Failure (kidney transplant in ’07) and am a little concerned about the comment of wondering how it would affect someone like me.

For Juju, Jess and Mary. The best way and fastest way to raise hypos is glucose syrup or tablets. If you want to help diabetics…spread this word and go to your local pharmacy, pick up a roll of 4 gram glucose tabs and glucose syrup. All other methods are a shot in the dark.

I have been using Truvia for about a month now (found it in Giant, both as packets and as a plastic jug of pourable sugar which was half the price). After a few days I started having really bad diarrhea and gas. Since I teach and have kids, I assumed I had a virus… but it’s still going on. At this point I am thinking of stopping the Truvia for a week and seeing if it’s the cause. If it is, no more Truvia!

I don’t find the aftertaste to be too bad… but it’s hard to dissolve in cold drinks.

I just bought Crystal Light ‘Pure’ for flavoring plain yogurt, a trick from the Hungry Girl website for dieters. It was mentioned that if you didn’t want to use the artificially sweetened Crystal Light, the ‘Pure’ version contains “no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or preservatives” – so it says on the front of the box! However, when I got it home and was looking at the back side of the box it says “No artificial flavors, no preservatives, SWEETENED WITH SUGAR AND TRUVIA” 🙁 I never have purchased it if I had seen that as I consider Truvia an artificial sweetner after reading your posting. One is opened, the others I will return. Don’t you find it odd that the front facing the customer on the shelf says one thing, then the back side says another?? It never occurred to me to read both sides as it never occurred to me that they would be different!I’ve lost 30 lbs on Weight Watchers eating healthy, low fat, low sugar foods with no artificial substitutions for anything – eggs, butter, sweetners, etc. – as I normally don’t eat those things. I feel kind of cheated by Kraft for the way they listed the Truvia on the back of the box and call it natural sweetner.

I like using sweeteners in my coffee because I only have to use a small amount and it won’t help develop any cavities. But then a friend warned me about the evils of sweeteners, and so when I found Truvia at the store I thought, hey, a natural sweetener that comes in a recyclable/reusable container, perfect. I’ve used it for a couple weeks now and I like it. Maybe I don’t pay enough attention, but I haven’t noticed an aftertaste. I’m no health nut so I don’t know about carbs and all that, but for the tiny amounts that I use, I feel it is a better alternative.

I love Truvia and hope there isn’t bad news down the road. It has helped me get off of sugar and for that alone, I’m grateful. (I have noticed, though, it tastes horrible in black tea but great in green tea.)

I was just researching Truvia, because my father is Type 2 diabetic. My mother has zealously used artificial sweeteners for him for 2 decades to satisfy his ‘sweet tooth’. We all are concerned, but she wont change. Yes, his health has steadily declined, in spite of organic gardening and an active lifestyle. My sister recently bought Mom some Truvia … havent heard mom/dad’s opinion of it, yet. The big red flag for me was when I saw at the top of this blog that Truvia is made and marketed by CARGILL. Ugh!! My dear healthy, fit son worked at a large Cargill grain elevator for 3 years and will never eat another drop of any food processed by Cargill if he can avoid it. (This includes Tyson chicken) He knows enough about the company to write a book on “Greed”, and knows enough about their treatment and storage of food to make one sick. He was in line for a good promotion but quit the company because of growing sensitivity (huge hives) to the molds and toxins in the grain storage tanks.

Just sayin’…:) I use just a bit of honey, sorghum, and home-grown Stevia myself. I’m sharing our knowledge of Cargill, so all of you can make a better-informed judgment.

To heck with it. I’m not about to have another franken food in my body. Anything processed no longer resembles what our bodies can handle. My Nan used to say ‘A little of what you fancy won’t hurt you’. I’ve managed to lose weight by watching what I eat as far as portions, freshness and nutritional value. I have a small dessert at least 2 times a week. It may be a thin slice of cake, 2 pieces of chocolate, or one small scoop of icecream. I believe that a small, satisfying amount of sugar/maple syrup/honey and fat will take care of the binge demons. Diet as you will, but indulge in some small tidbit. If you have to have sugar/sweet 24/7 – sugar is not your problem. Something is lacking in your diet or you are addicted to sweet. Wean off sugar and grain carbs and you’ll find you’ll be able to function without it.

I just tried Truvia for the first time in my tea. Ick ! The aftertaste is still lingering and I threw it ( my Tea ) out. The box of Truvia is next. I’m going back to Honey thank you… and letting my friends on F.B. know not to bother with this ” new miracle” food.. Yuk !

I use Truvia and actually quite enjoy it. I’ve taken up teas to kick the coffee habit (way too much caffeine), and quit my Coca Cola addiction too. It’s a big help to add a dash of Truvia to the tea instead of heaping amounts of sugar (Truvia is 2/3 tsp to every 2 tsp of sugar), and I’ve even taken up unsweetened soy milk, to which I also add a dash of the sweetener. I’m generally healthy and not too paranoid, but I hated the idea of diet sodas and aspertame. So, between 2 or 3 Cokes per day on top of 2 or 3 coffees per day, the alternative of a dash or two of Truvia seems way more palatable to me.

I have tried them and agree that Truvia (Stevia) leaves a bitter aftertaste. It also gave me terrible migraines. Equal and Splenda make my breasts sore. I believe that any sugar substitutes will eventually make you crave sugar even more. I rather stick with sugar in moderation.

I had been using Truvia in the one coffee I’d have during the day, but the store I was at the other day didn’t have it. So I picked up some “Stevia in the Raw.” I tried a little bit of the two straight and, honestly, I found the Truvia to have more of an aftertaste than stevia.

I have tasted every sugar substitute around (including stevia and Truvia), but never by choice. Those chemicals keep showing up and I usually detect it on the first or second sip/bite. I find them all unpalatable and I have thrown hissy fits at places that don’t tell me they are using artificial sweeteners. I don’t know which are better or worse. I just know they all taste awful (to me). I also use real butter because I see no valid reason to substitute a chemical for a perfectly fine natural milk product. I have heard all sorts of horror stories about how people can be hypersensitive to the chemicals in artificial sweeteners and get quite ill. Recently, at a Christmas party at the senior center which hosted close to 300 seniors many of whom have compromised immune systems, they served us Crystal Lite (is it cheap or something?). As soon as I tasted it I knew there was an artificial sweetener at work and asked what they were serving – then switched to water. I do, in fact, have an immune disorder so I stay away from ANY artificial sweetener. I take issue with any person or organization which serves it without a warning. They should be liable for any harm they cause. We need to educate the masses so they know they may be putting themselves and others at risk. If you want to put yourself at risk, go for it. But don’t give it to me.

the stevia plant is 600 times sweeyer than sugar when considering same amounts, yet stevia is healthful and actually is good for your health from many aspects including stevia is health for your gums and teeth, balances blood-sugar levels, promotes healthy digestion and assimilation of food, etc; stevia is truly a miracle food, as for one thing stevia beneficially effects your health which is the opposite of sugar, as any form of sugar is a poison, while like sugar stevia gives you a sweet and enjoyable taste.
THERE ARE NO BAD HEALTH DETRIMENTS FROM STEVIA, AND ANY RESEARCH THAT HAS ILLUSTRATED THAT THERE IS, IS BOTH FLAWED AND PAID FOR BY THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. TRUVIA IS NOT PURE STEVIA, AND IN FACT, THE FIRST INGREDIENT IN TRUVIA IS A SUGAR ALCOHOL (WHICH IS A HARMFUL AND POISONOUS SUBSTANCE), AND “STEVIA IN THE RAW” IS ALSO NOT PURE STEVIA AS ITS FIRST INGREDIENT IS A FORM OF SUGAR WHICH ALSO IS OBVIOSLY POISONOUS. YOU HAVE TO LOOK FOR AND USE A STEVIA BRAND WHICH IS PURE STEVIA, WHICH IS SOMEWHAT EXPENSIVE, OR STEVIA BRANDS WITH OTHER INGREDIENTS THAT ARE HEALTHFUL LIKE STEVIA PLUS BY WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, WHERE ITS FIRST INGREDIENT IS INULIN FIBER WHICH IS FROM CHICORY ROOT ( AND THIS IS HEALTHFUL AND NOT HARMFUL).

Reuben, Why are you writing in caps? Just lazy? Or yelling? It’s annoying to read and makes your comments secondary to the annoyance.
I recently read an article about sugar written by a nutrionist who believes that sugar, in moderation, can actually be good for you. I don’t necessarily believe everything he said but I certainly do not believe your rant mostly because you make sweeping statements as fact.
I don’t use much sweetener but when I do I use sugar because it tastes good and everything else including stevia doesn’t taste sweet to me and it leaves an aftertaste in my mouth. Your statement that stevia has a “sweet and enjoyable taste” is subjective so I will not argue the point.

Just as some people may be hyper-sensitive to sugar, others will be hyper-sensitive to other sweeteners including ragweed’s relative, stevia.

People, stevia is a natural sweetener… not artificial, altho’, I’m not sure whether Truvia has anything artificial in it. I used pure Stevia. @Reuben… a few months ago, I would have stood along side you and fought to the death that Stevia is not harmful. Until I had a friend tell me that Stevia is part of the ragweed family. And, if you’re allergic to ragweed, you COULD possibly be allergic to Stevia! I researched it and it’s true. I had been experiencing serious allergy symptoms and could not figure out why my allergy pills weren’t even touching it. Sadly, I believe it was the Stevia. I have switched to Xylitol and the symptoms are better. @Doucheb…. wash your mouth out with soap.

Well John, I don’t think that Dave is beating up other posters as you claim. And I think Itsthewoo likes to take a road five miles long to get to a place one mile away. But that’s just my take on things. I use Stevia in the Raw which (to me) tastes better than any other artificial sweetner. But if you like something, by all means stick with it until you hear of any problems that might be associated with it.

The problem with all stevia sold in stores, it is processed. Stevia powder is not white (it has been bleached amongst other things etc). Consider that when you buy any commercial “stevia”

Natural Stevia is green. Crude pulverized green leaves are a green powder and not harmful (tho a bit hard to find). Home made stevia extracts (made from fresh leaves) are not harmful either.
It may not dissolve as conveniently as the processed types, but you can always put it in a empty teabag and hang in your cup along with tea or coffee.

I’ve been growing stevia from seed. If your really luck you might get one plant to grow. chew on the leaves and you really taste the very sweet taste of Stevia, what it’s really tastes like, not like Truvia. There is a after taste for sure. But if you like sugar, over time you will really like Stevia and most will get over the after taste. Hey it beats Tobacco anyday.

Truvia side effects ! I have had severe stomach problems for three weeks , thought it was a stomach infection or virus and then four days ago broke out in a severe all over rash which I have never in my life had , googled Tuvia and there are a lot of people having similar problems, have stopped it now and will see ther results . It is the only change I have made to what is a normally a good diet , and the symptoms I have never before had, coincidence ?

I’m afraid of taking any risks, no matter how big the reward. I don’t even get out of bed as I may trip on something and be injured… even in my steel-reinforced concrete underground survival bunker.
Fact is, toxins are everywhere- the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. People really underestimate the awesome recuperative and self-cleaning capacities of their bodies. To a certain extent, that is. I’m all for minimizing toxin exposure, but there comes a point where the stress one creates for oneself by obsessing on everything edible- no matter how small the amount or level of toxicity- likely does more harm to one’s health than actually consuming them in small quantities.

My daughter and I started using the Herbalife shakes and teas that are sold at the corner nutrition store just a few blocks from our apartment. The owners use Crystal Light in their teas to give them different flavors, but I can’t use it because it contains aspartame, a sweetener that gives me a migraine every time I use it (I hate the stuff, and all other artificial sweeteners). So when I ran into Crystal Light’s new Pure and read that it used sugar, I decided to try it. Not long after I drank a bottle of tea with the Crystal Light Pure, I noticed that my head was starting to hurt just slightly. I looked at the package again, and saw what I missed: it also contains TRUVIA. -_-

Say what you will about sugar, I prefer it over the line of sweeteners that have rolled off the market since I don’t know when. I just use in moderation, and I use raw organic sugar and certified raw honey to sweeten my tea and coffee.

I am “new” in the eating-healthy world, and found this site as I searched for input on Truvia. I normally do not spend inordinate amounts of my time on the web reading other people’s oppinions for the simple fact of what has occured here. Some people input on their KNOWLEDGE or EXPERIENCE with the subject at hand, and others seem bent on using the space for a place to air their philisophical beliefs – – which tends to lead to disparaging remarks and judgements on others who don’t subscribe to the same. I will remind myself that we all start somewhere, and I am just glad I have started!! So a thank you to those who have helped me on my quest to LEARN more about Truvia. Thank you also to the others…..for the reminder as to WHY I won’t waste many more rainy Saturday mornings reading posts on websites!!! 🙂 Peace and happy eating (with or without sweeteners) to all! 🙂

With reading all these replies, this pretty much sums up how I feel about food. It’s super frustrating with all the contradicting “facts” out there. Who’s really right? I basically try to just go back to basics with my food.

To the everything causes Cancer, We all have cancer cells in us. What we do with our bodies and feed it will make part the difference. Try alkoline H2O. Cancer cells can’t live in alkoline water. It’s making my fybro body feel soooo much better.

I have just been told I have Fatty Liver and looking for a sugar replacement. So I tried Truvia….It KILLS me. The pain to my liver is unbearable.So those with low liver function or liver issuses DO NOT USE TRUVIA.
It does make you tired too. Never again.

I’m really glad that I found this website by accident. Truvia is now being promoted in England as a truly British product, complete with debutante and gardener in a Victorian conservatory singing “Truly Scrumptious” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Why would Coca Cola need to promote in this way, if the product is brilliant enough to sell itself?

ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO RAGWEED OR SUNFLOWERS? SO SORRY TO BE A BUZZKILL! I have been using stevia for about 6 years. My allergies, which I had finally conquered were getting horrendous! Then a friend told me she was allergic to stevia! HOW CAN THIS BE? It is in the family of Asteraceae. (ragweed and sunflowers) I was so bummed! I’ve resorted to using honey! I only use it in my coffee and iced tea. I gained 5 lbs in the 3 months I’ve been using honey, but I’ve leveled off. Working on less sweetness. SIGH!

Ate Stevia for about 6 years, my allergies became horrible, severe sinus headaches. Eventually no allergy pill would touch. Discovered Stevia comes from the ragweed plant family. Stopped Stevia, stopped allergies and headaches. Currently using honey, but will change to Xyletol in the near future. Very sad… i was happy with Srevia, knowing that I was not poisoning my body and with few calories. Stupid allergies.

One of my addictions is a multiple berry smoothie. On three occasions, when informed that the vendor didn’t have the regular mix, I accepted the diet version, which uses Truvia. On all three occasions I ended up with an extreme case of the runs within hours of consuming the smoothie.

The first time I assumed that it was just a coincidence. The second time made me wonder if it was the diet mix. The third time convinced me that the Truvia based diet mix was the cause.

I doubt that it was the other ingredients of the smoothie. I order the same thing every time and haven’t had problems.

While it isn’t hard science, with proper controls, the three for three correlation is a bit hard to ignore.

The only reason I wouldn’t buy truvia is because its distributed by Cargill and it’s aftertaste sucks. I would much rather help out an independent Company like “Brook natural sweetener” who’s product is organic and 100% GMO free. Check out their webpage “www.brooknatural.com” … I think you can find their product at wholefoods.

I used actual stevia for over 6 years… until I found my sinus headaches were getting worse and worse… like allergies. only to discover that stevia is from the ragweed family! Oh, woe is me. Back to drawing board! Xylitol takes a lot to sweeten and it actually has more calories and does leave a bitter aftertaste. I’m eating honey. Should have done in the first place. Yes, lots of calories but very healthy. I only put it in my coffee and iced tea.

I tried Truvia the other day and wound up with a terrible headache and nausea. This was after using just one packet. It was while looking it up that I came across this site. It sounds like I’m not the only one who’s had bad reactions to using this. I’ve tried Stevia in the past with no problem, but don’t really like the taste. I guess I’ll just go back to using sugar.

After switching from Splenda (which never bothered me) to Truvia, within a week I was in bed with severe gastric distress: Pain, bloating, more pain. I had eaten only home cooked meals and the only change in my diet was Truvia. Having a severe allergy to corn, I am usually very careful, and had not seen any corn ingredients on the Truvia so I tried it. Ugh, BIG mistake. While the yeast used to ferment the erythritol is marketed as “corn free”, the truth is that it is fed from corn. The big red flag was when I went to the Truvia website and could not find the ingredients list anywhere, only allusions and generalizations. I finally found the ingredients on a nutritionist’s website.
The corn Truvia is made from is mostly GMO, if you care about that (and you should), even though the yeast is not – and Cargill touts its yeast as non-GMO to mislead you even more. They say, and I quote “the erythritol is made from the yeast, not from the corn”. That’s like saying beer is made from the yeast, not from wheat and hops. There was even a lawsuit (for misleading marketing and damages) that Cargill settled late in 2013.
To them it’s a numbers game, but to me it’s my one and only body and health.
My humble opinion is: stay away from Truvia!!!!